Skylight Does Disney in "A Holly Jolly Holiday"
Photo by Mark Frohna.
I was four years old when I saw my first Disney movie in the theater. After a stern talking-to from my mother about how one must be quiet while watching a cartoon on an enormous screen in a darkened movie theater with lots of other people around and how it was very different from watching the black-and-white reruns of the Mickey Mouse Club on our TV at home, we settled into our red upholstered, self-rising seats on an aisle and waited for the movie to begin. Quietly. Much to my mother’s chagrin, there were perhaps two other families in attendance that day at the matinee showing of Disney’s Robin Hood. After being very well behaved for what felt like a very long time, I politely asked if I could dance up and down the aisles during the musical numbers. And with a sigh, she said, “Of course.” And what can I say, except “oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, golly what a day.” That was my first Disney memory – one of many, many instances that the stories, characters, songs, and artistry of Walt Disney and friends indelibly captured a moment in my childhood. And then in my children’s childhoods.
Those memories of promenading with Mary Poppins, building a snowman with Elsa and dancing with Simba, are the foundation for Skylight Music Theatre’s current production, A Jolly Holiday: Celebrating Disney’s Broadway Hits, running in the Broadway Theatre Center’s Cabot Theatre through December 31. A non-stop revue of songs from Disney movies that have made the jump to the bright lights of New York’s theater district, the holidays offer the slimmest excuse for a musically gifted group of friends to trim a tree together while eschewing favorite carols in favor of the soundtracks for iconic cartoons.
Photo by Mark Frohna.
Immediately audiences are taken in by Ken Martin’s set – a cozy, picture perfect home ready for the holidays, complete with a green garlands and twinkling lights on the banister, an enormous Christmas tree, and mugs ready for hot cocoa. It reminiscent of the Christmas specials from days gone by that invited audiences to curl up next to the fireplace and be lulled into a holiday mood with songs like “We Three Kings,” “Joy to the World,” and “The Little Drummer Boy.”
Photo by Mark Frohna.
While this holiday spectacle is more inclusive than its primetime predecessors – onstage there are decorations for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa in addition to Christmas – it is also more tangential. There is no doubt that the performers and audiences alike will enjoy this musical journey through Disney’s Broadway catalogue; the actors and singers shine in songs that bounce around in your head and heart for days after hearing them. But there is not one single song in all of Disney’s musical kingdom that references the winter holidays and the disconnect between the material and the season is hard to ignore.
The performers – five principle adults and a rotating chorus of six young people – also occupy a strange space. They repeatedly break the fourth wall by chatting with the audience and they use their real names, but they are also playing roles as friends at a holiday party in someone’s home, while also disappearing into the roles of each character they sing about. And the scripted chatter between songs does little to flesh out a story or even connect the dots between musicals; instead it provides factoids about the Disney brand. In fact the lighting design by Jamie Roderick does most of the work in transitioning from moment to musical moment, through clever manipulation of twinkling lights all over the tree and set.
Photo by Mark Frohna.
Fortunately the adult cast is stacked with talent — each one gives gorgeous performances in almost three dozen Disney ballads, love songs, and upbeat dance numbers. Shawn Holmes really shows off his vocal dexterity with fast-paced showstoppers, “Be Our Guest,” from Beauty and the Beast, “Friend Like Me,” from Aladdin and “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid. His seemingly boundless energy radiates from the stage as he throws himself into these huge comic characters. Similarly Kevin James Sievert’s stunning voice absolutely fills heartfelt ballads such as “Circle of Life” from The Lion King, “You’ll be in my Heart” from Tarzan and “Out There” from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
As the bad boy with the electric guitar, Joey Chelius adds some Elvis swagger to his songs and leads the cast through a set from Newsies, about rough and tumble newspaper boys in New York City fighting for better pay at the turn of the 20th century. He also puts a twinkle in his eye as Bert, the affable London chimney sweep to Samantha Sosterich’s charming Mary Poppins. Her high soprano floats above the company in finale chords and pairs beautifully with Daryn Alexus as the two women channel sisters Elsa and Anna in Frozen’s playful “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” On her own, Daryn is every inch the mermaid ingenue, as she longs to be “Part of Your World,” and is amazed by a flying carpet ride with Aladdin in “A Whole New World.” Backed by the six-person, onstage band, the cast performed a stunningly wide variety of roles in one evening, enough to wish Skylight could undertake many of the Disney musicals as full productions.
Director Michael Unger keeps the pace brisk and the performers moving, making great use of the stairway up to the second floor of the house. Similarly choreographer Tara Jeanne Vallee gives the cast dance moves that are appropriate to each show and intricate enough to be impressive. Props that appear in presents for the young people, such as a Simba stuffed animal and a pair of boxing gloves that look a lot like crabs’ claws help punctuate songs or segue one number to the next. Unger also added the children’s chorus to the show, making it visually more about families and adding some voices to fill out big chorus numbers. In the Jolly cast Sophia Furshpan and Evie Patrick really stood out as stars in the making. But without much to do for most of the show, several of the other members of the young cast looked bored.
Costume designer Brad Musgrove puts the young people in bright Christmas sweaters and eventually cozy pajamas for the second act, which also added to the holiday mood, while the adults got a shiny makeover at intermission, the men emerging in gold and silver vests and the women sporting bedazzled dresses that sparkled in the light.
And if that’s not enough holiday magic, wait until the snow begins to fall! Just don’t wait for a narrative that really pulls this Disney medley together, or ties it clearly to the calendar. Best in the end to listen to Lumiere and “be their guest” for a thoroughly stunning Disney concert.