Haul Out the Holly–Presented by the PhilHallmonics

A great time was had by all, including me and the rest of the audience. Phil Hall (pianist and arranger) put together a great holiday program. (Dec. 1 is a bit early, but BabyBro and I came to this date as OK for listening to holiday music completely independent of each other.) The cast was 12 dames (and I think they’d approve of that term), one male as assistant, and Phil, a bassist, and a reed player. All were directed by Sharon Halley (disclaimer, Ms. Halley choreographed a production I did many, many years ago).

There were pluses and minuses, and I’d like to get the minuses out of the way early. Tech—when three (or four) ladies are using hand-held microphones, the gain should at least be lowered. Balance between the three or four microphones was also a problem. And a couple of the ladies who were featured as soloists were a little on the weak side, to these ears.

Now, on to the pluses. With 34 songs listed in the program, I can only hit the highlights.

The opening was It’s Christmas in New York, with real harmony—a very nice, and encouraging, touch. There were traditional songs—Caroling, Caroling; Sleigh Ride; Let it Snow!; Do You Hear What I Hear?; Silver Bells; Winter Wonderland; etc.

There was country/rockabilly—All I Want for Christmas Is You and River. And there were novelty (new?) items, including Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (a really very funny duet) and Vodka (which went on a lit-tle too long for my taste).

O Holy Night and the Coventry Carol grounded us in the “Christ in Christmas” vein and there were a couple of pop rock–anthems, including I Hear Bells, and Christmas Lullaby. Even Do You Hear What I Hear? to some extent.

The staging, direction and choreography were much better integrated into this program than the last PhilHallmonics presentation I saw and blogged about. Mister Santa made great use of what looked like Santa potholders. All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth gave us the ladies in their ’jammies—then they came into the audience and the aisles for an audience sing-a-long—Frosty, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and Rudolph. Fun!

Have Yourself a Merry Christmas and The Christmas Song did their “pull-at-your-heartstrings” best.

Special mention must be given to Martin Samuel, who was a gallant Cavalier in Once Upon a December—a music-box of a number whose singer created her very own music box magic.
Mr. Samuel also appeared as Santa toward the end of the concert.

I hope I’m not revealing too much {wink}, but in Mr. Hall’s A Swingin’ Christmas (composed for this Lincoln Center Library performance), Mr. Samuel’s Santa suit turned out to be a not-quite-full-monty breakaway. This Santa did not have a belly like a bowl full of jelly. The dames seemed to approve!

ConcertMeister