A Flat Rock Playhouse Christmas

This show is unique among Flat Rock Playhouse’s mainstage offerings, because it’s completely original and completely new each year. (This is the third annual presentation, and a fourth has been announced for 2020.) And so for 2019 the Rock has again brought together a professional company of terrific singers and dancers, a community chorus, the Playhouse youth ensemble, the young women from Hendersonville’s Pat’s School of Dance, and live musicians. Together they offer a range of sacred and secular holiday songs — and a few stories delivered by occasional narrator Scott Treadway (who’s also a capable singer).

There’s nothing else like it in Western North Carolina — a professional revue of Christmas music performed live, with plenty of dancing, gorgeous costumes (by Ashli Arnold Crump), and a feeling of joyous celebration. The show’s creator, director, and choreographer Matthew Glover has come up with inspired new configurations every year so far, and everyone onstage and in the audience has a great time.

This year is no exception, beginning with the brightly building opening number, “It’s Christmas,” and continuing through the full-company finale and audience sing-along. I prefer to go in each year not knowing what songs will be sung or in what order, so I’ll offer a “spoiler alert” here for those who, like me, like to be surprised. Rest assured that while there are some carols and standards that simply have to be repeated one year to the next, this installment is full of brand-new stagings and songs not included in previous years.

The onstage musicians this time number just two, music director Jeff Ostermueller on piano (who put a ton of work into this show) and percussionist Paul Babelay. They spend most of the show on a rear terrace, connected to the lower front level by twin stairways lined with faux stone balustrades like you might see in a Victorian park. A number of Christmas trees, wreaths, garlands, and other decorations make for a festive stage, designed by Chris Simpson.

Among the performers, kudos especially go out to lead dancers (who also sing) James Du Chateau and Francesca Mancuso, who perform graceful pas de deux in several numbers, including “All I Want for Christmas Is You” (the country song, not the Mariah Carey) and “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve,” while heartfelt lead vocals are delivered by Erin Rubico (“All I Want”) and Maddie Franke (“New Year’s Eve”).

There’s also a thoroughly entertaining tap number, “Cool Yule” (with the amazing Travis Battle on vocals), for which Mancuso and Du Chateau are joined by Franke, and many visits by the talented troupe from Pat’s School of Dance, whom Treadway aptly terms the “Flat Rock-ettes.” They bring wide smiles every year, so it was great to see even more of them this time around. The energetic six-member youth ensemble has two fun songs, “Snow Beautiful Snow” and “Be a Santa,” and joins the company for other numbers.

The vocal pyrotechnics are more emotive than explosive in this installment, which is entirely appropriate to songs including “Ave Maria” (beautifully rendered by Jason Watson), “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (intimately delivered by Charlie Johnson) and “Mary Did You Know” (Battle, Johnson, and Jason Watson). I was particularly pleased to hear “Where Are You Christmas?,” the best thing to some out of the 2000 live action film “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” sung as a duet between youngster Ivy Rose Voloshin and grown-up belter Kathleen Watson, who tempers her performance nicely to match her co-star. Kathleen and Jason Watson, her husband, also blend nicely on “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

Percussionist Babelay takes the spotlight twice, for a warm marimba rendition of “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” (with interesting intro by Treadway) and a drum-box accompaniment for “What Child Is This.”

Much of the music for this edition of “A Flat Rock Playhouse Christmas” was pre-recorded by a full orchestra rather than played live, which provides the intended fullness of sound (sound design is by David Gerena) but seems out-of-character for the typically performer-focused Playhouse. The numbers with just Ostermueller and Babelay playing live were just as entertaining as those with the canned symphony, and it’s so much more satisfying to watch actual musicians do their thing, as the Babelay showcase numbers demonstrate.

Glover and his Flat Rock collaborators try something new with this show musically every year — past installments have included singers sometimes playing their own instruments, and a larger onstage band. This year’s experiment with a ghost orchestra may build up the Act One and Act Two finales dramatically, but it left me disappointed in how much musicianship was relegated offstage. The audience, as always, loved the bombast of “O Holy Night,” but I have to believe there’s a way to deliver a bang-up, emotionally stirring finale that is less dependent on volume and multiple layers of sound. My challenge to Glover for 2020 is to find that new twist, and maybe leave “O Holy Night” (as much as I love that carol) in the piano bench for once.

All of which is not to belittle this year’s “A Flat Rock Christmas,” which my mother and I thoroughly enjoyed. There’s rarely so much talent gathered on the Flat Rock stage for one two-hour performance, and this review has mentioned less than half of the program. It kicks off the WNC holiday entertainment season with some real kicks (thanks, Pat’s School of Dance!) — and then some. It does indeed bring “Joy to the World.”

A Flat Rock Playhouse Christmas runs through Dec. 22. For details and tickets, visit flatrockplayhouse.org.

Photo: Bruce C. Steele