Haul Out The Holidays
Haul Out The Holidays
Directed by Michael Edwards
Winter Park Playhouse, Winter Park, FL</strong>
At last! A holiday cabaret that stays far away from the sound track to your Wal-Mart shopping experience. The fine family at WPPH tackles the seasonal “old softie” show, but keeps to what they do best – show tunes, movie music and tap dancing. The premise is rock-paper-scissors simple – Heather (Alexander) and Roy (Alan) entertaining their adult friends Laura (Hodos) and her significant other Todd (Mummert). A bunch of kids run around and contribute to the merriment. While they open with a stock medley of the generic holly and snowflakes, soon we enter into a Roy Alan specialty “Turkey Lurkey” and the kids sing the obscure “Somewhere in My Memory” (Tianna Stevens) and “Once Upon A December” (Bella Muller). Novelty songs are a part of the holiday season, but I’d never heard the B-movie classic “The Fruit Cake that Ate New Jersey” led by David McCarthy. An elegant “The Best Things Happen While Your Dancing” has Todd and Laura ballroom dancing across the stage, and the kids return with a slow, jazzy “Christmas Time Is Here.”
The highlight of the show comes from Eb and Flo (Hodos and Alexander) as the pant suited, hair helmeted singers from the Best Western in Oshkosh, WisCANsin. I grew up in the same zip code as Alexander, and she nails that Midwestern divorced party girl accent as she blasts through the disco hit “Cheese Logger Today”. Other treats are the tap dancing “Holiday Hop,” Heather Alexander’s “Santa Baby” romp up the center aisle to rub the bald spots on the older audience members, and a gorgeous “Believe” by Todd wraps up the show. Sure, they sang a few numbers from The Grinch and something about Chestnuts and Eggnog, but there’s no reason to keep beating those numbers into the ground. This is a fun, innovative show that takes most of the sting out of the gift of a fruitcake you last saw five years ago.
For more information on Winter Park Playhouse, please visit http://www.winterparkplayhouse.org
