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No story, just a (mostly) Christmas themed song and dance revue. Most of the best known and most loved christmas songs were covered; "It's the most wonderful time of the year", "Let it snow", "Santa Claus is coming to town", "Jingle bell rock", "Winter wonderland", "Santa baby", "All I want for christmas is you", "I wish it could be christmas every day" and of course "White Christmas" to name but a few.
Billed as the greatest christmas show ever, I would like to agree with that assessment - would like to, but I can't. In fact if I had to sum this show up in one word, the one that most fits the bill is 'ordinary'. Maybe I expected too much, but there was just nothing about this show that really made me sit up and take notice.
On the positive side the dancing girls very pleasing on the eye, and the costumes they wore were varied and colourful. Prominent throughout were sequin spangled Santa suits, ending just below the waist, in red, green and blue. Another sketch saw the girls dressed as christmas parcels, a gift-wrapped box covering the torso with the legs exposed below, and shoulders and arms above. Then there were white one-piece body suits with layered chiffon trains and wide feather ruffs.
It all felt a bit disjointed, particularly since the three centrepiece acts, provided by Merrill Osmond, Johnnie Casson (stand-up), and Peter Grant were entirely stand-alone performances, totally disconnected from the rest of the evening. Unquestioned high spot of the christmas part of the show was the clapping routine; around a dozen performers seated on stools at the front of the stage clapping and slapping their own and each others knees with mesmerising hand movements. And when you thought it was over, they did a reprise, only faster! The decided low spot was "Santa's Animal Friends Meet Rudolf", half a dozen cartoon-type animal suits 'dancing' to a 'pinky and perky' soundtrack.
Merrill Osmond performed a selection of songs, including a couple of 'Osmonds' numbers ('Love me for a reason' and 'Crazy Horses'). As compere for the evening he struck up a good rapport with the audience. Comedian Johnnie Casson gave a ten minute routine which was very funny, although I found one or two of his character references to be in poor taste. Local boy Peter Grant outshone the others singing a selection of golden oldies in his own unique style (a kind of mix of Sinatra and Sammy Davis).
An entertaining piece of christmas hokum, but one which fell some way short of its billing.