Christine Pedi is nothing if not a multi-tasker. What else can you call someone who prepares and performs in cabaret at the same time she’s in rehearsal for the upcoming revue NEWSical the Musical, and also hosts The Broadway Breakfast show that runs for six hours, five days a week on Sirius/XM radio? Pedi is even a multi-tasker within her shows, often channeling more than a dozen iconic women singers, as she does in There’s No Bizness Like Snow Bizness at the Beechman Theatre (which will run for 10 performances until December 30).

Keeping an audience engaged throughout a holiday-themed show isn’t easy to pull off, but the long-time star of Forbidden Broadway had the opening night crowd eating out of her hands—or at least they were eating the candy she was tossing to them during her opening medley of Christmas standards. Elegant in her black velvet pantsuit under a knee-length velvet jacket, the classy comedienne then showed she could be cynical as well as reverential when it comes to the holidays. Her parody of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” chronicled the craziness of Christmas season shopping and was brought home with her classic Ethel Merman impression. Pedi followed that with a story about how in 2009 she was told to change the name of the show—which she first performed three years ago as Holly Jolly Christmas Folly—or pay the rights holders of the song “Holly Jolly Christmas.” She didn’t sing in Burl Ives’s voice, but cleverly parodied his signature tune through a cease and desist letter from the lawyers.

Then it was time for Pedi to bring out her celebrity send-ups as if they were treats out of a Christmas stocking. A “public domain” holiday song medley featured Cher, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli (the latter singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” while pointing out there were “no planes that night out of JFK or LaGuardia”), complete with Pedi’s spot-on takes of their mannerisms, facial tics and hand gestures.

While Pedi’s own singing voice is strong and warm, it’s not nearly as distinctive as any of the voices of the great performers she mimics. But perhaps having a more generic sounding voice without idiosyncrasies is what allows her to be the best female singer/impressionist since Marilyn Michaels. Why Pedi doesn’t rate occasional guest spots on Leno or Letterman is a complete mystery.

The set lagged a bit when Pedi sang straight with “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)” and “The Christmas Song” (“Chestnuts Roasting on an OpenFire”), but her a capella rendition of the African-American spiritual “Children, Go Where I Send Thee,” and masterful version of Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians’ version of “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” (knocked out of the piano park by her Musical Director, Matthew Ward) were triumphs of lyric memorization, especially considering she had flubbed some lyrics on simpler songs earlier in the set.

Pedi brought out her whole mischpucha of characters for the “12 Divas of Christmas” finale. From Carol Channing on “12 drummers drumming” to Julie Andrews on “a partridge in a pear tree” (even Oprah got in on the act with “six geese-a-laying, and they’re all under your seats to take home!”), the comic songstress flew seamlessly from one impression to another without missing a beat. This is one holiday season show that deserves five golden rings.

Chrsitine is at the Beechman Dec. 13 at 9:30, Dec. 19 at 4:00, Dec. 20 and Dec. 26-30 at 7:00.

Stephen Hanks
Cabaret Scenes
December 5, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org