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‘A Berkley Hart Christmas’ is the holiday special we need right now
If you can spare 50 minutes this Christmas weekend, treat yourself to a warm and cozy musical visit with Jeff Berkley and Calman Hart. The area duo’s “A Berkley Hart Christmas Special” just makes you feel good. It’s a streaming incarnation of the kind of annual holiday shows Berkley Hart has been performing in the county for over a decade, and if you’re too busy to watch and listen today, it’ll be available through New Year’s Eve (tickets $15).
While performing in an inviting living-room setting complete with Christmas tree, wreath and stockings hung with care, Berkley and Hart (who was born on a Christmas Eve) are visited by a variety of doorbell-ringing guests, all bearing poinsettias and good cheer. Besides the neighbors caroling “Jingle Bells,” the Santa’s Sweethearts trio serenades from outside a couple of traditional tunes including “Here Comes Santa Claus.” Inside there are brownies being baked and “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” being read and a dog snoozing by a crackling fire.
But “A Berkley Hart Christmas” — presented by Poway Onstage — is no living, breathing Hallmark card. The proof is in the music being made during the show: favorites from the Americana duo’s 2014 holiday album such as “Christmas in the Ashram” and “Winter Wonderland” as well as serene moments like Berkley covering Joni Mitchell’s “River” and the two of them doing “Silent Night.”
The show boasts humor aplenty, too, that never tries too hard for laughs. The opening of the program, a nod to the CBS specials of our holiday-tvwatching days gone by, is cleverly done.
Friends from afar express season’s greetings via Zoom in one intermittent segment, and a musical slideshow pays tribute to the dogs and cats that have kept us company and kept us sane this year.
You won’t find a more genuine or affectionately assembled virtual holiday show than this one. powayonstage.org
Coddon writes the Union-tribune’s Arts+culture Newsletter, published every Thursday. Portions are published in this column. To get the newsletter in its entirety, sign up for it at sandiegouniontribune.com/utartsculture