"World of Jewtopia," with Bryan Fogel (left) and Sam Wolfson, makes its Philadelphia debut at the Kimmel Center. It will run Dec. 24 to 27.
- Vigil Sunday in Upper Darby for boys injured by car
- 'Everyday art' with a love of color
- Wine theft mystery is a Gallic treat
- Holiday wonders at Headhouse Square
- Thanksgiving Day parades draw thousands to celebrate
- Irish bishops covered up child abuse, study says
- Basil D. Nutter Jr., Mayor Nutter's father, 75
- China says it will cut carbon up to 45% by 2020
- One family's parade ritual of a heckling-hilarity kind
- Interest stirred by commercial-grade composting
- Historic Fairmount homes dressed for holidays
- At North-Frankford game, lots of memories
- If you and your walls are fearless, try black
- Health bills would raise taxes before changes start
- Nutter needs to figure how to get Dad Vail back
- Battered brokerages turn to 'wealth management'
- Censing ocean creatures
- Glitch kicks London exchange offline
- Let the sales begin! Extended hours on Black Friday, this weekend
- To some, Black Friday means 'Buy Nothing Day'
- House sales going up, but it's going to be a bumpy ride
- Research group warns of harmful toys
- The rewards of adopting older kids
- Retailers have high hopes for Web shopping
- Alice in museumland: 2 exhibits offer fresh looks at Carroll's masterpiece
- Martha Stewart: Down-to-earth tips on in-the-air travel
- Joe Sixpack: Beer, parties & pants: It's the holidays!
- Iran grabs Nobel Prize, freezes $ of dissident
- Doc defends 'coma' recovery
RELATED STORIES
On many local stages, shows with holiday cheer
Department-store Santas, redundant holiday radio, and TV reruns go only so far in kindling the holiday spirit.
Still, beyond the fattening foods and re-gifting rituals, there remains a festive beacon of hope for the frazzled masses - live performances can be your seasonal respite.
Like clockwork, holiday perennials of theater, dance, music, and even ice skating take center stage every year, as welcome as the smell of a gingerbread latte or new Coach purse.
Despite the frozen economy, this year's marketplace still teems with options. There may be fewer overall productions in 2009, but most performance companies are offering a good time.
Let's start with those stingy Scrooges. This year, seven - count 'em seven - Ebenezers bah-humbug their way through town. The Walnut Street Theatre puts on its children's version - as does the Media Theatre, although with a jazzy, rockin' twist. Both the Curio and Hedgerow Theatres stage the Dickens tale, as do the Bridge Players in Burlington. The Chapel Street Players of Delaware boast A Christmas Carol: A Modern Adaptation; while Actors' Net of Bucks County goes rogue with The Christmas Carol Conspiracy: Scrooge's Revenge. And don't forget Tiny Tim's Christmas at the Bristol Riverside Theatre.
As always, there are musicals - holiday and otherwise - that fill the big houses along the Avenue of the Arts and Walnut Street. The sweetest may be Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. The Tony winner, set in Florence in the 1950s, is a theater valentine - bursting with young love and longing.
Souderton's Montgomery Theatre stages I Love My Wife, a musical that takes place at Christmas in Trenton. At the Walnut, Oliver! ignites the Oliver Twist classic with characters and songs that are unforgettable. Andrew Lloyd Webber's biblical foray, the pop-rock Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, plays at two venues: the New Candlelight Theatre in Delaware and Mayfair's Devon Theater (the last theatrical production at the nine-month-old facility).
Although crammed into the Academy of Music, the touring version of Irving Berlin's White Christmas should be a visual and aural delight. Another iconic movie-musical, The Wizard of Oz, brings Dorothy and Toto to the Media Theatre through New Year's. Theatre Horizon re-creates a '40s nightclub with "Holiday Show With the Swing Club Band," a jazzy evening of golden-era standards and cool laughs.
With a whopping musical-comedy punch, the pantos of People's Light and Theatre Company have become tradition in Chester County. This year, a rip-roaring Snow White survives with the help of those seven short dudes. Another over-the-top experience, the Bill Irwin-adapted Scapin, showcases clowning, live music, and puppetry at the Lantern Theater.
For Hanukkah observers, the mighty funny - and mighty successful - World of Jewtopia makes its Philadelphia debut at the Kimmel Center. The soon-to-be-a-film show pokes cheeky fun at the tribe. Further irreverence is captured in Sister's Christmas Catechism - of the hilarious "Late Night Catechism" series - playing one night at Wilmington's DuPont Theatre. Crumpet the crabby elf is back for Flashpoint Theatre's scathing The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris. And BCKSEET Productions trots out those saucy Eight Reindeer Monologues. 1812 Productions does the political thing again with the always-topical This Is the Week That Is; and Walking Fish Theatre serves up titillating spirits in A Burlesque Carol.
The always innovative Enchantment Theatre Company fuses movement, mask and music for a beautiful theatricality. Its take on The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon should prove satisfying.
For the tiniest of tykes, there's an all-new Peter Pan at the Arden Theatre Company; Pinocchio sings and dances for Storybook Musical Theatre; Frosty the Snowman entertains at Broadway Theatre of Pitman; and Winnie the Pooh's Holiday Tale packs 'em in at Hedgerow. Mrs. Tinkerton's Toy Store rattles and rolls at the Ritz Theatre in Oaklyn, and Charlotte's Web weaves its magic at Players Club in Swarthmore. Northeast Philly's Actors Group - an all-kid ensemble - roars with Beauty and the Beast.
The quaint It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play inhabits both the Delaware Theatre Company and the Players Club of Swarthmore with its broadcasting take on Frank Capra's gem.
The Pennsylvania Ballet trots out its lavish Nutcracker again, following a Lincoln Center run in Washington. The Philadelphia-based Eleone Dance Theatre offers a musical retelling of the Gospel of St. Matthew in Carols in Color at the beautiful New Freedom Theatre.
And don't forget the ubiquitous Disney on Ice, soon to be skating at the Wachovia Center. Dubbed "Let's Celebrate," the show puts Disney characters in international locales for family fun. If your clan visits the Jersey Shore, "Cirque Dreams Holidaze" explodes at Trump Taj Mahal. A Cirque du Soleil knockoff, Holidaze still packs a visual wallop.
