Subjected to an unending barrage of holiday music for two months, you may be ready to scream “Enough!” Just in time, it’s Adam Shapiro to the rescue, and he’s gutsy enough to say, “No chestnuts tonight!” But after listening to his collection of alternative songs, you might think you’ve landed on a strange planet.

Shapiro is off and running with the world premiere of the title song, written by Barry Levitt (music) and Peter Napolitano (lyrics). Their anthem contains lines from several Christmas classics to be shunned.  Shapiro puts out a lot of energy to please the audience, and with strong musical direction from A. Michael Tilford and superb direction by Napolitano, he succeeds in a big way.

There are plenty of outrageous numbers to be sure—“The Twelve Days After Christmas,” “Santa Clothes” and “The Night Santa Went Crazy.” In Shapiro’s universe, pear trees are chopped down for spite, Santa has a fetish for women’s lingerie, and he murders his elves and reindeer. But there are warm-hearted songs for sentimental souls, too.

Besides delivering weird holiday tunes like comedian Kevin James gone mad, Shapiro’s fine singing is believable on sweet numbers like “Cold Enough to Snow” (Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz) and “Alone in the World,” written for Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol by Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics and much of the libretto).  Let’s hope that Adam Shapiro will make this show his annual tradition.

Jerry Osterberg
Cabaret Scenes
December 30, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org