Skylight’s ‘Holiday Special’ fresh, nostalgic
If December TV specials were destination viewing for you growing up, point your screen toward “Skylight Sings: A Holiday Special,” which Skylight Music Theatre is streaming to ticketholders through Jan. 10.
The form of this hourlong video production is certainly nostalgic, with artistic director Michael Unger eliciting holiday memories from performers before they sing. But the material is fresh, well chosen, often comic and occasionally even funky.
Kaylee Annable sings the Mona Abboud novelty “The Pretty Little Dolly” with Carole Burnettish comic gusto. For the younger crowd, Ashley Oviedo and Kevin James Sievert enjoy a spirited duet on “Love Is an Open Door” from “Frozen.”
Ryan Cappleman dances with his dog Dolly in “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing” from “White Christmas.” (“That’s a really well-behaved dog,” said my daughter, watching Cappleman sashay the compliant Dolly around the stage.)
In this inclusive holiday special, Aaron Reese Boseman is pure gimmel on a funky Hanukkah medley of “Spin It” / “I Have a Little Dreidel.” Sievert, Shawn Holmes, Krystal Drake and Raven Dockery join voices for “Seven Principles,” a Kwanzaa song by Bernice Johnson Reagon, the founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock.
With grace and dignity, Skylight regular Andrew Varela sings “A Simple Song” from Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass,” with Biblically informed lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, accompanied by guitarist Doug Syme and flutist Jeremy Stein.
Note that Unger’s crew doesn’t completely abstain from familiar holiday music. Holmes delivers a soulful version of Mel Torme’s “The Christmas Song”; Dockery revives Charles Brown’s entreaty, “Please Come Home for Christmas.”
Skylight recorded performers on the Broadway Theatre Center’s Cabot Theatre stage in a socially distanced way, supported by the trio of keyboardist David Bonofiglio, bassist Michael Ritter and percussionist Michael “Ding” Lorenz.
The drummer gets the spotlight for his arrangement of “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” played on taxi horns. Lorenz also backs up former artistic director Ray Jivoff, wearing a bunny suit, as he mock-grumbles his way through Spike Jones’ goofy lament “My Birthday Comes on Christmas.”