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REVIEW: 3LB's 'Home for the Holidays' thrives in new venue
By JEFF MURPHY, Special to The News Journal
Theatergoers who prefer their dinner and a show to occur at the same place must miss the region's Three Little Bakers Dinner Theatre, with its decadent array of desserts and its high-kicking musical revues, especially around the holidays.
The buffet may be closed at their former digs in Pike Creek but for the Bakers--a family-run entertainment staple with show-business in their blood-the show must go on.
The company brings their annual Christmas song and dance celebration, this year called "Home for the Holidays," to Wilmington's baby grand theater. With the move, the show feels more measured, theatrical and less like a variety show than in prior years.
Gone is the episodic "category" approach to the songs they often used, the interlude with the guest trained dogs or chunking the action into thematic parcels. This yields a quite focused product that, while still light and cute, allows for more emphasis on the songs and the performances.
The scene is a large, warm and inviting living room where Tom Burke and Vicky Saunders play the husband and wife hosts to friends and family for an extended holiday gathering. The party begins with "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" as the many guests arrive with gifts and holiday treats.
Michael Brooks establishes himself early with an assured voice during "Sleigh Ride" where the cast of more than a dozen create a human sled. When it's time for bed, the children's dreams of sugar plums, toy soldiers and dancing bears come alive to the music of Tchaikovsky and Victor Herbert.
For the racy "Santa Baby," Tiffany Christopher entices as she runs down her lengthy wish-list for 8 tap-dancing Santas who "hurry down the chimney" one by one.
The partiers re-convene, in tuxedos and colorful ball gowns, in the second act opening with "The Christmas Waltz" in a carefully orchestrated dance routine. Rick Fountas and Kerry Cain shine during the melancholy "It Must Have Been the Mistletoe" backed up competently by the entire company.
Director James J. Weber starts off with big production numbers but settles comfortably into an approach that varies the show's overall pace, pitch and style.
Before intermission, the carefully chosen tunes, such as "The Christmas Song" and "Christmas Dreams" get full-length traditional treatments in Weber's pre-recorded arrangements that include tricky key changes.
After the break, he uses snippets or medleys along with a noticeable jazz/swing feel ("Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland" and "Let It Snow").
A breezy tone for used for some throwaway numbers like the kid's "That's What I Want for Christmas" and "The Chipmunk Song." Tim Moudy and the other men don cowboy hats for the silliness of "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" after a brief nod to Hanukkah during "The Dreidle Song."
Before the finale and "White Christmas" is a Living Nativity that rejoices in telling the story of Christ's birth through traditional carols and Bible passages.
The dance numbers, arranged by choreographer Saunders, are graceful and intimate for the paired-off couples. Lifts and polished twirls figure highly for the main dancers Brooks and Christopher. The small army of tin soldiers dazzle as they are put through their military paces but the music wants to be much bigger during this segment.
The set is homey, attractive and takes up most of the wide stage. A fireplace sits stage right, a huge window upstage and a big ball of mistletoe over the front entrance.
For act two a huge and perfectly trimmed tree appears, along with stockings on the mantel, which could only have been made more festive with gifts around its base.
A few surprises not mentioned here make the production feel like a "Best of the Bakers" in that it pulls back a bit on the extravagance and spectacle--however impressive the costumes are-- in favor of letting the songs work their magic.
The performers, most of whom have years of stage experience, are gleefully committed to "building new memories" and helping "holiday dreams come true."
Some annual holiday traditions are hard to change once a family starts practicing them.
It's fortunate for the city that, as Christmas time approached, the Bakers felt like a couple of wistful empty nesters still hanging stockings for kids that long ago flew the coop.
Important Information
Three Little Bakers Dinner Theatre closed its banquet and theatre operations in early 2007.
The Pike Creek Valley location will not reopen. If you have questions please contact Vicki Immediato-
Winton.