Swingin’ Santas
Cabaret performances like Swingin’ Santas Cabaret should be taken with a grain of salt because they generally thrown together simply to entertain; for that reason I feel no reason to come down hard on this holiday show. If my amusement was the goal, I was entertained, if not impressed.
That said, I have to warn theater connoisseurs that this is not the show for you. Put simply, most of the boyscould sing, but couldn’t be called singers. There was one major exception, whom I’ll mention in a bit, but my advice to the theater buff is to watch the performers, but listen to the pianist. In truth, pianist Howard Breitbart’s playing was one of the high points in this show. In fact one of the few moments the audience fell into silent awe was when Breitbart played the interlude to Vince Guaraldi’s "Skating" (from A Charlie Brown Christmas).
The production’s main redeeming factor was the song selection. Unlike most Christmas cabarets that generally feature signature carol after signature carol, this show included mostly songs that you wouldn’t normally hear on the radio-or anywhere else for that matter other than in niche performances. There were some Christmas classics to be sure - Silver Bells, We Three Kings and Silent Night among them-but there were also some songs, like Nature Boy and the Christmas Waltz, that I haven’t heard in years. To some extent, this show almost seemed like a tribute to the Rat Pack because of divergent song choices.
As I said before, most of the boys were great performers even if their voices weren’t particularly impressive. The one glaring exception was a guy by the name of Zachary Prince who cannot only sing, he is a singer - an old fashioned crooner in fact. While the other three moved about the stage in a busy show-biz style, Prince was often stationery, leaning on the piano or sitting on a stool, which allowed his captivating voice to stand on its own. That he resembled a young Pierce Brosnan didn’t hurt matters. Looking over the cast credentials I wasn’t at all surprised to learn that Prince had just returned from a National Tour as leading man Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys. He’s definitely someone to watch.
The biggest mistake in the show came at the very end. The production should have concluded when Prince sang a heartbreakingly beautiful version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Instead the boys came together again to close with "Silent Night" a cappella style, which was decidedly anticlimactic. After Prince’s solo performance, anything else was going to pale in comparison.
Two and a half out of five stars for a show that wasn’t quite up to snuff for the good people of Signature, but that was an entertaining holiday treat nonetheless.
Swingin’ Santas Cabaret @ Signature Theater closed on December 20, 2009. For more on the theater’s season visit the Signature Theatre’s website.
