HOLIDAY SHOW Eclectic performance dazzles audience

Song, dance, magic, humor and patriotism all made appearances.
By TRACEY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- Theatergoers were treated to an eclectic holiday show Sunday night at Stambaugh Auditorium.
"Holiday Dazzle," sponsored by the Monday Musical Club, offered machete-juggling, unicycle jump-roping and magic tricks, along with traditional holiday fare.
The nine-person cast included eight singers and dancers and a member who served as a combination comedian, juggler and magician.
The stunningly-costumed troupe performed several song-and-dance acts, ranging from the solemn "O Holy Night" to a rousing version of "Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me," sang by a Santa-suited "Elvis."
Interactive entertainment
Throughout the show, audience members were invited to go on stage and participate. In one such instance, the participants donned reindeer antlers and learned the "Reindeer Boogie" as the cast encouraged the rest of the audience to join in from their seats.
The audience was awed by the antics of the magician, who juggled several items and performed a number of magic tricks, including making doves, and his accomplice, appear and disappear.
Colorfully-costumed dancers also pleased showgoers with stirring renditions of ethnic holiday songs, "Feliz Navidad" and "Mele Kalikimaka."
The children in the audience were delighted later in the show when Santa's elves arrived on stage with giant stuffed animals and toys that came to life, singing childhood favorites like "The Good Ship Lollipop" and "Hickory Dickory Dock." Santa himself also made an appearance during the show, joining in the dancing as "snow" fell onto the stage.
The troupe also presented a kid-friendly version of "A Christmas Carol," where a naughty boy's parents notice a change in their son's behavior after he is visited by three amiable Christmas spirits: love, friendship and giving. Before the child's transformation, he sings "I'm Getting Nothing For Christmas," and then breaks into Michael Jackson's "Bad."
The more poignant moments in the show included a nativity scene re-enactment while a mother is reading the Bible story of Jesus' birth to her daughter, and the finale, a salute to soldiers in the Middle East, with versions of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."