By Maryann Lopinto***Christmas brings many seasonal shows to cabaret, with different takes on the holidays, and starring some of our greatest cabaret performers. I attended two very different shows: We Love the Winter Weather—Songs of the Season at Birdland, with cabaret legends Jeff Harnar, KT Sullivan, Stacy Sullivan and Todd Murray, with musical director Jon Weber. Then three days after Christmas, at 54 Below, Melissa Errico with Billy Stritch in their run of Twas the Night After Christmas—A Winter Party.
We Love the Winter Weather treated us to solos, duets and quartets, with songs written by Irving Berlin, Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn, Carol Hall, Kander and Ebb, Peter Yarrow, Frank Loesser, Harry Nilsson, Mel Torme, and Heather and Tim Sullivan, Addy Fieger and Danny Apolinar. For fun there was “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” and “Hanukkah in Santa Monica” by Tom Lehrer. Closing the show was a 17-minute version of “White Christmas,” put together by Jeff Harnar: so brilliant it should become a perennial.
Storyteller extraordinaire Melissa Errico filled the Night After Christmas with plenty of memories and even a video of herself at age 6 with her family celebrating Christmas and singing “Jingle Bells.” Wearing green plaid Pajamas as one would on Christmas morning, she sang a variety of songs that she tied into the Christmas spirit, such as “Evergreen” (Barbra Streisand, Paul Williams). She penned her own seasonal lyrics to Rodger and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things,” and a Sondheim parody of “Send In the Clowns.” Handing the solo spotlight to Stritch, Errico exited for a costume change, returning in a beautiful red gown a la her role in Broadway’s White Christmas. She closed the show with a special guest Eva Arkin. In the band was bassist David Finck and drummer Eric Halvorson. It all was a beautiful Christmas gift.
