Divas Worth Doing

Santa arrived early this year, delivering A Broadway Diva Christmas to New Yorkers starved for originality and pizzazz in this season of relentlessly repetitive holiday music. To begin with, any Christmas show that features the idiosyncratically sensational Ellen Greene is automatically going to be special. Add the vocal pyrotechnics of Maya Days, the comedic versatility of Christine Pedi, the full-throated feistiness of Kathy Brier, the Tony-nominated class of Marla Schaffel, plus three dynamite backup singers, and you’ve got yourself a gift-wrapped musical theater experience courtesy of the team behind the popular cabaret show Divas I’ve Done.

When the show opened with a smooth pop blend of “Silver Bells” by the Jingle Babes (Tedi Marsh, Kate Pazakis, and N’Kenge Simpson-Hoffman), followed by a disco-like version of “Do You Hear What I Hear?” performed by Days, we thought we were in for An American Idol Christmas. But it soon became apparent that this high-octane revue would offer a wide variety of styles of music and would thrive on its combination of heartfelt ballads and brilliant musical comedy performances.

The true nature of the show began to shine through with Schaffel’s deliciously deadpan rendition of “The Lonely Jew on Christmas,” followed by Pedi’s sex-kitten romp in “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” The comedy was then balanced by Brier’s soul-stirring rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “River.” We were fully won over, and the rest of the show built on that success with ever-increasing dividends. The high points included Greene’s genius version of “Santa Baby,” which had us howling with laughter, and Pedi’s celebrity impressions in “The Twelve Divas of Christmas.” (She does knockout imitations of everybody, but her Angela Lansbury and Bernadette Peters are truly amazing.)

Tightly directed by Michael Duling, the show is 80 minutes of non-stop entertainment. Musical director/pianist Brian J. Nash, set downstage with a four-piece band, strikes a joyful attitude that’s mirrored in his lively arrangements. Also noteworthy is the exceptionally well-balanced sound design of Carl Casella; the band never overpowers the singers, and all the lyrics are crystal clear. Thank you, Santa, for giving us A Broadway Diva Christmas.

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Defying Gravity

The Golden Dragon Acrobats put on a show that has no narrative — not even a flimsy thread of a plot like we see in Cirque du Soleil — and that’s just fine with us. In this often thrilling show at the New Victory Theater, you will see some incredible acrobatics, and each display has nothing to do with what comes before or after it.

There is certainly no want of variety here. One performer balances upside down on a tower of chairs that reaches from the stage to the ceiling of the theater. Another performer (a descendant of Gumby?) contorts herself into a series of virtually impossible positions, all the while balancing tiers of water glasses in her hands and on the bottoms of her upturned feet! Only our own jaws dropping from our chins to our feet could match that act!

The show is otherwise full of plate spinners, rope swingers, and all sorts of gymnastic derring-doers; they are impressively costumed by Angela Chang, who also choreographs this extravaganza of gravity-defying acts. The Golden Dragon Acrobats will entrance adults as well as kids.

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Woody Makes a Match

Woody Allen is famous for a lot of things, one of which is the fact that he shoots his movies in and around New York City. As a consequence, his films have consistently featured many New York stage actors in roles both large and small. But this time, for the first time in his remarkable career, he picked up stakes and shot his new film Match Point in London.

Don’t look for Woody’s name in the cast list; the movie features neither him nor his jokes. Instead, Match Point is a dramatic thriller set in the tennis world. It focuses on the love triangle among three attractive twentysomethings played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Emily Mortimer, and Scarlett Johansson. Yet Woody hasn’t forsaken stage actors; the cast features Brian Cox, Margaret Tyzack, and Penelope Wilton. The film was a huge hit at the Cannes Film Festival and will probably do very well in New York, where it is set to open on December 28.

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[To contact the Siegels directly, e-mail them at siegels@theatermania.com.]