A Flat Rock Playhouse Christmas
This year’s Flat Rock Playhouse holiday offering is a bit like channel surfing through the best bits of every variety of musical Christmas show you can think of. There’s Motown, sacred carols, a ’50s crooner, ’60s surf sounds, bluegrass, classic movie songs, and so much more. In short, now in its ninth incarnation, A Flat Rock Playhouse Christmas remains fresh, vibrant, and full of cheerful revelations.
If you’ve seen and loved a previous version (and I’ve seen and loved a bunch over the years), you don’t need me to recommend this season’s production. Knowing any more than the showtime might constitute a spoiler, so I won’t be insulted if you stop reading now and just select your seats and go. But if you prefer to know a little about what to expect, I’m happy to oblige.
When Victorian-garbed carolers lead off the festivities (“Here We Come A-Caroling”) outside a decorated door, you know there’s only one person who could answer their knock: our host Scott Treadway, who introduces the festivities as the Playhouse vagabonds’ “reward” for a challenging and successful 2025 season. Of course, it’s also a gift to the Playhouse audience, with some two dozen songs — both beloved and unexpected — stuffed into the uninterrupted 90-minute running time. (Who needs an intermission when it’s freezing outside?)
There are no duds in the mix, although everyone will have their own favorites, depending on individual tastes and the particular genre to which one is most in tune. Among my favorites was Galloway Stevens’ spirited rendition of “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,” which both evoked and gently ribbed the exuberance of 1940s and ’50s crooners like Dean Martin, without ever crossing into parody. Treadway ushers in two genuine surprises, neither of which I’ll spoil but both of which had the audience in stitches (that’s a clue to one of them).
I also loved the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” in which the ever-entertaining Maddie Franke and Ashton Lambert turn our ballet expectations gleefully on their head. As a huge fan of the classic movie White Christmas, the inclusion of the song “Snow” (sung by the four women: Franke, Evan Bertram, Alyssa Renaee Byers, and Amanda Tong) was a special treat. And Vanswan White practically brought the house down with his James Brown-worthy performance of “Merry Christmas, Baby.”
Vanswan White in A Flat Rock Playhouse Christmas.
The few songs that make a return engagement from previous years shine in new ways. Bertram’s “The First Noel” gave me goosebumps, her incredible voice breathing fresh passion into the timeless words. “Noel” was one of several songs featuring the talented students of Pat’s School of Dance, who are 16 or 17 talented and ebullient young woman (and this year, one talented and fearless young man). Their every appearance is a smile-inducing pleasure, and they only seem to get better and better year after year. Their showcase number, simply called “The Flat Rock-ettes,” was a particular standout. The Pat’s gang’s excellent choreography is by Pat Shepherd and Sheraton and Dustin Phillips, while Lauren Hopkins beautifully choreographed the larger ensemble, who ably hoofed it up in many styles.
Kudos also to the Pat’s School costumer, Carol Ann Surrette, who matched the skills of Flat Rock Playhouse costume designer Tim Barham stitch for stitch. I lost count of the costume changes early on, but every new outfit was perfectly executed and matched to the moment — even if I was nearly blinded by Jackson Hurt’s gold-glitter jacket for his show-stopping “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”
The four-piece band gets its own showcase moments, most notably as three of them take centerstage for the Bing Crosby and David Bowie classic “The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth,” with unstoppable percussionist Bill Muñoz on bongos, and Ryan Guerra and Ben Mackel on guitars and vocals. The endlessly amazing Guerra is also featured on fiddle with a playful Byers on vocals for a fun “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” Music director Nathan Trivers may be stuck behind his upstage piano, but his skills are felt in every ear-pleasing arrangement.
Ashton Lambert and members of the Pat’s School of Dance troupe in A Flat Rock Playhouse Christmas.
The creator and director of this fabulous evening of music is again Ethan Andersen, whose skill in coordinating and elevating so many moving parts (in both senses of “moving”) is incredible. If I have any complaints, it’s that the wonderful Flat Rock Chorus — a backing ensemble of two dozen-plus singers — is difficult to hear, which is especially disappointing in numbers such as Byers’ take on Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” in which their interplay with the vocalist is integral to the song. But that’s a minor misstep in a major-league production that had the opening-night audience on its feet more than once and smiling broadly as they reluctantly stepped out of the Playhouse and into the cold night air after it was over.
A Flat Rock Christmas runs through December 21 at the Flat Rock Playhouse in Flat Rock. Learn more and find tickets at flatrockplayhouse.org.
(Photos courtesy of Flat Rock Playhouse)
Alyssa Renaee Byers in A Flat Rock Playhouse Christmas.
