Richard Holbrook: Christmas in New York
Richard Holbrook
Christmas in New York
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, November 30, 2014
Reviewed by Peter Haas for Cabaret Scenes
The year-end holidays got off to a warmhearted start with the return of Richard Holbrook to the cabaret stage, with his charming show, Christmas in New York. Combining Yule-time numbers with standards, Holbrook, with his fine tenor backed by the Tom Nelson Trio, moved non-stop and effortlessly from song to song, as a packed house—welcoming him back from serious surgery late last year—cheered throughout the evening. With subtle almost-acting, he brought alive such seasonal standards as Livingston and Evans’s “Silver Bells,” Francesca Blumenthal’s fun-poking “Christmas in New York,” Carleton Carpenter’s “Christmas Eve,” Steve Allen’s hip “Cool Yule,” a moving rendition of “The Little Drummer Boy,” and two newcomers to the holiday ranks, “Christmas Angel,” by Paul Stephan and Sue Matsuki, and “It’s Always Christmas in New York,” by Ronny Whyte and Roger Schore, this latter number exhibiting the writers’ bravery to rhyme the phrase “Christmas upon us” with “Gowanus.”
New York City itself was saluted with Cole Porter’s “I Happen to Love New York” and Portia Nelson’s wonderful love/hate number, “Confessions of a New Yorker.” Timeless standards were represented by Irving Berlin’s “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” and Sondheim’s “Children Will Listen.”
With tasteful direction by Richard Barclay, the evening ended with a medley of holiday numbers, including “Jingle Bells,” “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” “Winter Wonderland” and others, topping it off with a moving toast, Coleman and Leigh’s “Here’s to Us.”
Category: Cabaret Reviews, New York City, New York City Cabaret Reviews
