The 58th Annual Singing Christmas Tree

What’s not to like about this entertaining production? Anyone who enjoys Christmas should attend and feel the joy. With falling snow every now and again on stage, and a wonderful choir that sang in perfect unison while standing on the set of the elaborate tree, it was a glorious evening
I had the good fortune of having a great seat next to a lovely lady whose husband was in the choir along with her dear friend who played the angel. She told me they practice every week starting in September, and then the whole week before the production.
With fabulous costumes, amazing solo’s, dancers, acrobats and puppets, I think people of all ages would enjoy this show. I know we would love to make it a yearly tradition ourselves.

This is a tough event to review. If I could give half stars, I would go with 2.5.
I had never been to a performance of the Singing Christmas tree before, so I was looking forward to checking it out. As Chad mentioned in his review, the show was an odd mixture that included traditional Christmas songs, international Christmas songs, puppets, and dancers.
The singers making up the tree did sound pretty good for most of the songs they performed and the soloist had a nice voice. However, there were a few songs that did not get very good treatment. For example, I felt that their performance of Feliz Navidad was watered down and washed out. It was a disappointment. Overall though, I would rate the singers a solid 3 stars.
The dancing was hit or miss. I enjoyed the Irish dancers, but some of the other dances were not my cup of tea. A couple of times, I felt the dances seemed a bit out of place for this type of performance — the rockette style dancing by younger performers seemed a bit odd to me. I would give this portion of the show 2 stars.
I like the Grey Seal Puppets but honestly, the storyline of the polar bear puppet was a bit on the silly side. The talents of the Grey Seal Puppeteers are much more apparent in their other performances.
However, the biggest problems I noticed were with the venue itself. I would give the venue 1 star. First off, when we arrived, there were a lot of seats that had been double-​booked. I have never seen that type of chaos at any type of performance I have been to. It was bizarre.
The acoustics in this venue have always been bad, and they still are.
Then, the seats were actually uncomfortable and I felt squished into my seat sitting between one big person and one tall person. I almost felt claustrophobic at times.
To top it all off, it was really hot in there… so uncomfortable that we thought about leaving halfway through the show. We did end up staying for the entire performance but I have to admit, I felt a sense of relief when the show was over.

Apparently some years ago, a number of people assembled on the steps of a funeral home in the shape of a Christmas Tree and started singing. They are still doing so. Perhaps not the same people, but you get the idea.
Whatever the case, the Singing Christmas Tree is a tradition that is still going strong. Or strongish. There was even a wedding party that has apparently attended the event for 50 years now. But the jury is certainly out on the event itself.
Not having attended this particular performance before, I don’t know if this is what they usually do, but they seem to have an identity issue. Notably, some songs are performed in their entirety (and then some), with every verse from the traditional hymnal, with more thrown in as well. Others are abbreviated in American Idol or Glee-​esque fashion. It’s a mish-​mash that doesn’t really work that well.
Then throw in works like a tribal drum number (that was one of the better of the night) and the fact that some of the better voices are muted in the tree itself so you can’t hear them, and it’s definitely something you might not miss if it doesn’t see a 59^th year.
At a minimum, they may be better off doing a traditional show for those who want the regular hymns, and a contemporary one for those who, well, don’t, rather than trying to mix the two. And for goodness sake, fix the sound and seating issues, as those are just too basic to not have working correctly!