From Deseret News archives:
Desert Star kicks off the season
MURRAY — For several years, vaudeville-style "olio" entertainment has been part of the musical melodramas showcased in the Desert Star Cabaret Theater.
For the holidays, Desert Star is taking audiences in its newly added dinner theater venue in a slightly different direction — musical revues which are, basically, 90-minute-plus olios.
The "Home for the Holidays" revue features nearly 20 Christmas songs, plus several comedy routines. (This production alternates most evenings and weekend afternoons with "The Rat Pack Remembered," the tune-filled tribute to Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.)
Fans of Desert Star won't be disappointed.
"Home for the Holidays" features six familiar DST performers in a fast-paced show that includes familiar carols, poignant ballads, off-the-wall humor and a couple of touching dramatic segments, all geared to get audiences into the holiday spirit.
Some of the highlights on opening night included the entire ensemble — Justin Berry, Mary Parker Williams, Spencer Ashby, Kirsten Kenison Nagel, Jennifer Nix Royall and David Walker — performing such group numbers as "Winter Wonderland" and a rarely heard folk tune, "A-Soulin." The three women also sang "Mr. Santa" (to the tune of "Mr. Sandman"), while Berry and Kenison were heard in a country duet, "The Angels Cried."
Ashby also delivered a moving monologue about a soldier's lonely Christmas in a foreign, war-torn land, which segued into a series of dramatic projected images of hospitalized children, some older folks in a nursing home, some homeless people on the streets, and others faced with spending Christmas in settings far different from Norman Rockwell's paintings, accompanied by Nagel singing "I'll Be Home for Christmas."
Among the funniest bits were Ashby, Berry and Walker in a highly athletic "Nutcracker" parody, decked out in green tutus and holiday-print boxers and Mary Parker Williams' trio of segments featuring "Cooking With Midge." Her recipes — for both holiday food and disaster — included a high-octane eggnog, a volatile Wisconsin Whiskey Cake and a wine-laced Scandinavian grog, which ended with Midge being chased by a larger-than-life gingerbread man.
Noteworthy solos included Royall's sultry "Santa Baby," Williams' poignant "Lovely Ride" and Ashby's comic "Lonely Christmas Tree."
The talented Ben Mayfield was featured in several piano solos in addition to accompanying the other performers. And stage manager Richy T. Steadman also proved to be a versatile performer, tap-dancing up a storm and adding some "howling" to an all-barking version of "Jingle Bells" by Berry, Ashby, Royall and Nagel.
E-mail: ivan@desnews.com
