{"id":42482,"date":"2018-11-30T08:11:08","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T14:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=42482"},"modified":"2018-11-30T08:11:35","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T14:11:35","slug":"noel-the-musical-not-your-ordinary-christmas-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=42482","title":{"rendered":"‘Noel: The Musical’ not your ordinary Christmas production"},"content":{"rendered":"

By DAWNE LEIKER<\/strong><\/p>\n

In \u201cNoel: The Musical,\u201d endearing characters, richly colored sets and stunning music brought a lovely story to life. Wednesday evening\u2019s Encore show, with music by Irish film composer Liam Bates and book and lyrics by Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) was a welcome departure from clich\u00e9 Christmas shows.<\/p>\n

\"\"I think we all know the sorts of Christmas shows I\u2019m talking about: Someone in a gaudy holiday sweater narrowly saves Christmas; or a nasty, grinchy guy becomes not so nasty because \u2026 Christmas. My dad used to say it\u2019s no wonder the mortality rate increases during the holiday season. His theory was that many folks just give up and succumb to death, rather than be subjected, once again, to \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life\u201d or \u201cWhite Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, back to \u201cNoel: The Musical.\u201d The show, set in today\u2019s London, centered on Noel, a young girl whose mother has gone missing. Noel befriends a group of homeless people and a rather depressed man named Nick. \u00a0This depressed man, played by Todd Berkich, actually is Santa Claus, who left his position as gift giver to the world after the loss of Mrs. Claus five years ago.<\/p>\n

If this sounds clich\u00e9, well, maybe it was. Just a bit.<\/p>\n

However, I was struck by the depth of story-telling in the show\u2019s lyrics. In the song, \u201cInvisible,\u201d performed by Edgar (David Johnson) the audience was confronted with the reality of society\u2019s treatment of homeless individuals. \u201cYou think this is what I want from my life?\u201d He sang, \u201cI\u2019m invisible. I\u2019m everything you hope you\u2019ll never be. So pitiful, so miserable, so downright invisible.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Johnson\u2019s reprise of \u201cInvisible,\u201d he implored the audience, with a depth of emotion that felt very real, to connect with the humanity of those who we often refuse to even see.<\/p>\n

Berkich\u2019s portrayal of Nick, as well, was heartfelt, and his rich baritone voice was powerful, particularly in his solo, \u201cThis Man.\u201d Nick eventually fell in love with Duchess, a homeless woman who had created a fanciful back story for herself.<\/p>\n

Duchess (Tess Jonas), a dynamic and yet poignant character commanded the stage with her lovely pure voice. In addition, Noel (Jena Simmons) was delightful in her role as a sweet, yet determined girl.<\/p>\n

As is generally the case with stage productions, lighting and set played a major role. The palate used wasn\u2019t the garish greens and reds of typical Christmas productions, but subtle, rich purples, muted greens and black, which truly set the scene for a unique Christmas tale.<\/p>\n

The Encore series will resume in 2019, with \u201cRent: 20th<\/sup> Anniversary Tour,\u201d Friday, Feb. 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By DAWNE LEIKER In \u201cNoel: The Musical,\u201d endearing characters, richly colored sets and stunning music brought a lovely story to life. Wednesday evening\u2019s Encore show,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,3402],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-area-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/noel-a-holiday-musical.jpg?fit=400%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42482"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42485,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42482\/revisions\/42485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}