Yule show has warmth, humor and Santa Babies
The latest edition of Shadowbox Live’s Holiday Hoopla, a yearly tradition for the troupe, is confident enough to take pleasure in restraint rather than excess.
Its skits are as touchingly human as they are comical, and many of the musical numbers are pleasingly self-possessed rather than unnecessarily showy.
Even the sketches that rely on holiday cliches find new ways to play with them.
One that begins with the familiar sight of a dad bemoaning the difficulty of assembling toys on Christmas Eve turns into a beguiling monologue by Brandon Anderson, and then to a tribute to marriage.
Another, about a woman giving advice to those for whom she is wrapping presents at a department store, gives Amy Lay a chance to develop a subtle character and has an endearingly sweet ending.
The most ambitious sketch, which sends a scientist (Jimmy Mak) traveling back in time to the year zero, has a classic joke set-up with some original twists, and plays out deftly over its length.
A couple of the sketches fall short, however.
One that sets a mother (Stacie Boord) against a daughter (Amy Lay) who wants a pony for Christmas in a Fox News debate gets caught between edgy political satire and silliness, leaving the audience more confused than gratified.
Although the show has its share of hard-rocking numbers, including a blistering show-opening Father Christmas led by Nikki Fagin, some of the most effective songs are the quieter ones. In this case — unusually for Shadowbox Live — they’re performed mostly by men.
Lukas Tomasacci performs a sincere and soulfully moving version of Queen’s Thank God It’s Christmas, and JT Walker III offers a slyly intense take on Jethro Tull’s Skating Away.
Walker dials it back a notch for a pleasantly mellow duet with Stev Guyer on Simon and Garfunkel’s Hazy Shade of Winter.
Restraint goes out the window, of course, with the appearance of the Santa Babies, Hoopla’s traditional raucous closing act.
The irrepressible, if not necessarily irresistible, trio of provocative Dixie (Julie Klein), highspirited Dolly (Boord), and game if exhausted Dorothy (Stephanie Shull) mugs its way through the usual Christmas medleys, interspersed with groaninducing puns and flaunting of body parts, with the ladies’ highenergy and good spirits making up for the lack of novelty in the act.