Klea Blackhurst, Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch: A Swingin’ Birdland Christmas
Klea Blackhurst, Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch
A Swingin’ Birdland Christmas
Birdland, New York, December 22, 2014
Reviewed by Ron Forman for Cabaret Scenes
The mix of Klea Blackhurst, Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch in A Swingin’ Birdland Christmas [running through December 27] is the perfect recipe for a wonderful way to end a holiday afternoon in Manhattan. Working seamlessly together, they mix old and some new holiday songs, mostly performed up-tempo, with Stritch on piano, Daniel Glass on drums and Steve Doyle on bass providing the appropriate swinging accompaniment for the venue.
Caruso and Blackhurst open with “The Holiday Season” and “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.” Stritch and Blackhurst perform “The Christmas Waltz” with a delightful counterpoint arrangement by Sharon Douglas and Aaron Weinstein. Stritch’s “The Christmas Song” is followed by an amusing story of how Mel Tormé and Bob Wells wrote the song on the hottest day of the year…in California. The three stars unite in perfect harmony for a medley of “It Happened in Sun Valley” and “Snow.” Stritch does a hilarious medley of really bad Christmas songs. Caruso sings a very funny “Regifting” with melody borrowed from Irving Berlin’s “Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)” The show closes with each performer doing a different version “Jingle Bells,” followed by an encore of a sing-along “White Christmas” which left this cheering audience feeling warm all over.
Category: Cabaret Reviews, New York City, New York City Cabaret Reviews
