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Traditions of Christmas
(2003) by Christian Community Theater  This year marks Christian Community Theater’s eleventh
annual production of Traditions of Christmas, which has become quite a
tradition in its own right as one of the San Diego’s most popular annual
holiday shows.
The current incarnation promised to be a bit different than Christmases past. Most of the main features seen over the past few years are there including Christmas Around the World that takes us through a song-and-dance filled montage of how the holidays are celebrated throughout the world, Santa’s Workshop with Santa, Mrs. Claus, his elves, and live toys including the entrancing toy soldiers (big and small sized) and dancing Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, a holiday USO Show, The Nutcracker, Scrooge, and The Living Nativity finale. This year does include a couple of new features including a glimpse Behind the Music that tells the intriguing stories behind some of our most beloved carols including Jingle Bells, The Christmas Song, O Holy Night (which features an amazing solo by Janie d’Avignon), Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, White Christmas, and Little Drummer Boy (ending with a dazzling display of drumming by some of our best local drummer boys). Another outstanding highlight from the new version of Traditions includes a hilarious rendition of Santa Baby that begins with Mrs. Claus offering her hubby a few choice suggestions from her Christmas list, followed by a group of little girls who are themselves followed by a group of older and more scantily clad girls from the kickline ensemble. Many of the changes were simply changes in how scenes were done – some better and some not quite as good as before, but lots of good experimentation (despite resulting in a number of little technical glitches opening night). High-tech video is used throughout with mostly successful special background effects. In one scene snow falls on the audience, although the whirl of the snow blowing fans nearly drowned out the song White Christmas. Parts of the show feel a little rushed, especially during their run through popular Christmas stories where sadly their Scrooge scene was severely shortened to make room for overly condensed version of others like the Grinch and Charlie Brown Christmas. But a fantastic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer filled with a kickline of prancing Rudolphs and a gorgeous Nutcracker proved to be a couple of the show’s strongest scenes. Both of those scenes featured some of the many remarkable works by talented Costume Designer Tamara Myers -- the stunning, creative, and gorgeous costumes, many of them new for this year, proving to be a brilliant addition throughout the production.Production runs through December 23. Rob Hopper San Diego Playbill |