Home For the Holidays
Opening Night: November 21, 2017
Closing: December 30, 2017
Theater: August Wilson Theatre
Backed by a kinetic eight-piece rhythm and brass band, traditional favorites like “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “O Holy Night” provide heart as they come to life side-by-side with radio favorites such as “All I Want for Christmas is You” and “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)”.
BUY TICKETSREAD THE REVIEWS:
November 21, 2017
“Please be advised that Home for the Holidays contains haze effects,” warns a sign at the August Wilson Theatre, and boy, does it ever. First there is the hazy concept. This tacky pop-up Broadway concert, the yuletide equivalent of a Halloween costume store, features a comically motley cast: Candice Glover, Josh Kaufman and Bianca Ryan, three winners of televised vocal contests; Kaitlyn Bristowe, one of two bachelorettes on season 11 of The Bachelorette; Peter and Evynne Hollens, a married a cappella duo; and, somehow, veteran character actor Danny Aiello. Then there is the hazy singing: breathy, baroquely melismatic ornamentations, as though the vocalists were skating on thin ice and afraid to stay on a single note for more than a quarter of a second. And then there are the hazy stories. “I don’t know if this really happened or was one of many dreams I had as a little boy,” says Aiello, recalling a 1945 encounter with Christmas bells. “Either way, it is a memory I will treasure my entire life.”
READ THE REVIEW
November 21, 2017
Bring back Donny & Marie!
As clean-cut as their 2010 “Broadway Christmas” may have been, it also displayed a ravenous need to entertain, not to mention unexpected senses of humor and kitsch. Sadly, those qualities are absent from “Home for the Holidays,” a limp revue of carols and Yule-themed pop songs that makes the Osmond siblings’ spectacle look as debauched as a Mötley Crüe concert.
We live in a culture that loves winners, or at least claims it does, so this holiday offering is headlined by three singers who have triumphed in reality-TV competitions. Candice Glover won “American Idol” in 2013, while Josh Kaufman claimed the title on “The Voice” for Team Usher in 2014. At only 23, Bianca Ryan is the most seasoned performer of the trio, having won “America’s Got Talent” in 2006, when she was 11.
READ THE REVIEW
November 21, 2017
Reality show singing-competition winners, popular YouTube performers and Oscar-nominated actor Danny Aiello appear in this Christmas-themed Broadway concert. Morose over being stuck in the city during the holidays? Tired of seeing those same old perennials like the Radio City Christmas show or The Nutcracker? If you answered yes and wish to throw yourself even further into seasonal depression, there’s a new show on Broadway that’s just the ticket. Expertly recalling the sort of entertainment you’d experience on a cruise ship or in a low-rent Vegas casino, Home for the Holidays is a Christmas show only Ebenezer Scrooge could love. This limited-run revue features a cast tailor-made for an internet and TV reality competition generation: American Idol winner Candice Glover, The Voice winner Josh Kaufman, America’s Got Talent winner Bianca Ryan; Peter and Evynne Hollens, billed as “YouTube sensations”; Bachelorette star Kaitlyn Bristowe; and veteran, Oscar-nominated actor Danny Aiello.
READ THE REVIEW