'Carols' a fun twist on holiday season

Are you tired of Christmas music yet? After all, how many times can you listen to Burl Ives, as great as he is.

In last week's column, I mentioned several Christmas gift ideas for the theater-buff in your life, not the least of which was the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS charity's annual Christmas CD, "Carols for a Cure."

At work today, I popped in this year's installment, the 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition ... you know, for research.

What a delight! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the old traditional renditions as much as the next (Osmond Family Christmas, anyone?) but there is something about a disco version of "Deck the Halls," done by the cast of "Xanadu;" or the Tony-Award winning cast of "South Pacific" doing a hip, swing arrangement of "I Saw Three Ships," that makes for a fun twist on the season.

Included in this year's two-disc set are some favorites from years' past, "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel," with Harvey Fierstein and the cast of "Hairspray" from 2003; or the 1999 cast of "Annie Get Your Gun" and Bernadette Peters singing a stunning rendition of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas."

They also have a great selection of original songs, and off-Broadway casts; "Shepherd's Fury" (Altar Boyz), "Christmas in my Mobile Home" ("The Great American Trailer Park Musical").

I bring all this up because we're all running out of time and what better gift is there, than the gift of music? Go to www.broadwaycares.org.

P.S. If you're giving the set to younger kids, have mom and dad listen to them first. Since I'm listening at work, I can't hear every word — sometimes they'll stick a song on that is a bit irreverent.

In Broadway news:

Golden: 'Twas a good year for Broadway plays and musicals-turned-movies. The 66th annual Golden Globe Awards, a precursor for the Oscars, were announced and the Great White Way did well on the silver screen. Meryl Streep, in true Streep fashion, was nominated — twice — for leading actress; "Mamma Mia!" and "Doubt." The ABBA musical also received a nomination for Best Picture (musical or comedy).

"Frost /Nixon," a film adaptation of a play about the televised interviews President Nixon granted David Frost in 1977, was nominated in five categories, including Best Picture and a Best Actor nod for Frank Langella, who reprised his role, again. (He played Nixon in London and on Broadway.) He has won every best-acting award for which he's been nominated in the role. The film opens on Christmas day.

"Doubt," a Tony Award-winning play, and the fifth longest-running on Broadway, jumps to the big screen with Streep in the lead, playing opposite award winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman. "Doubt" was also nominated for five awards (including one for Hoffman) and will be released in January.

World Wide Webber: So, the Really Useful Theatre Group, the company dedicated to Andrew Lloyd Webber, has created a YouTube page specifically for Webber, his music, his shows and his news. It can be found at www.youtube.com/reallyusefulgroup.

Warning: it took my computer a long time to load ... so only do it when you have the time (not while working on deadline).

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E-mail: ehansen@desnews.com