SHUT UP, ITS CHRISTMAS by Thom Allison (Allison). At Buddies in Bad Times (12 Alexander). Friday (December 11) at 8 pm. $17.50 advance, $20 door. 416-975-8555, buddiesinbadtimes.com. Rating: NNN
That searchlight that shone from Buddies last Saturday night and will provide a beacon again this Friday comes from Thom Allisons radiant smile.
You see a lot of it during the two-act cabaret Shut Up, Its Christmas!, both halves devoted in very different ways to the holiday season.
In the first, you meet Lola Kringle (aka Claus), Kriss wife, dressed initially in a red-and-white outfit that echoes that of her husband. She regales the audience with her history both before and after she met the happy toymaker, who was also you probably didnt know this a bathing suit model.
Its an opportunity for Mrs. Kringle to explain her life through a series of mostly Broadway tunes, including a pair of melodies that use her name, Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets and Copacabana.
Happy to get away from the cold North Pole, she channels a fair amount of Marilyn Monroe and Carol Channing with songs that range from Im Just A Little Girl From Little Rock and Dont Rain On My Parade to I Enjoy Being A Girl and New York, New York.
Lola has great pipes and goes from seductive to raunchy to tender with ease, so its a shame when she quits just before a songs last line and says, but you get the idea. Yes, but we still want the payoff of the tunes final notes.
Its Allison himself who presents the second act, featuring traditional Christmas songs and medleys from films and stage musicals, accompanied here as earlier by the talented Diane Leah.
Tales about his family are mixed with Count Your Blessings Instead Of Sheep, We Need Another Christmas, No Place Like Home For The Holidays and other seasonal melodies, all sung and acted with emotional truth. Allison has one of the most mobile faces in the business, and he makes good use of it, whether naughtily parodying long-gone divas such as Merman, Billie Holiday and Garland performing Christmas tunes or apologizing when he dries on a lyric.
Its a tribute to Allisons talent that other cabaret performers were in the audience, among them George Masswohl and Sharron Matthews, who have their own Christmas show at Buddies December 19 and 20.
