Since Broadway came back to life yesterday, it’s all the more appropriate that I kick off a month of holiday-themed Geek Outs with A Broadway Christmas. I was able to find a couple clips of this very cool show on YouTube to share. Back in the late 80s (it looks like ’88 from what I’ve been able to research), there was a fund-raiser in Britain done for Save The Children. A number of West End shows participated, all in costume and on their sets, and did Christmas numbers.
Among the shows participating were Aspects of Love (doing “Silver Bells”), Miss Saigon (doing “Silent Night,” in perhaps the oddest of the numbers with Jonathan Pryce in full Engineer costume singing while surrounded by the whores and servicemen) and Cats (with “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”).
So kick your holiday into gear with these two performances:
First up, the cast of Starlight Express sings the John Lennon Classic “Happy Christmas (War is Over)”
And Les Miserables with “Ding Dong Merrily on High”
I taped this program off of Showtime when it first aired and haven’t seen it on since the early 90s and it has never shown up on DVD either as far as I know. But I do pull it out every year, at least once and often more, to enjoy the yuletide cheer. I hope you enjoyed it too.
