Review: CHRISTMAS PROMS 2018 at Adelaide Festival Theatre

Reviewed by Isabelle Zengerer, Saturday 15th December 2018.

On Saturday night I had the delight of attending the Christmas Proms 2018 directed and choreographed by Christopher Horsey, with the wonderful Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, hosted and conducted by Guy Noble, with traditional carols and popular Christmas-themed songs performed by Lucy Durack, and Tap Pack members, Sean Mulligan and Jan Di Pietro.

The stage was decorated with wonderfully festive Christmas trees at the back of the stage, and giant baubles and wreaths that descended from above during the opening song.

During the carols, Durack showed off her impressive vocal range with a more operatic style of singing, demonstrating her range of style as compared to the more jazzy effect she employed in the more contemporary Christmas songs. The audience was invited to sing along to the carols with the aid of surtitles, which was great fun.

Di Pietro and Mulligan had a great on-stage rapport as they form part of a dance troupe called the Tap Pack, not only tap dancing several numbers together but singing in perfect harmony. The program was an extravaganza of dance as well as music, as students from the Barbara Jayne Dance Centre treated the audience to an enchanting performance of Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers from his ballet, The Nutcracker, featuring 10-year-old Mietta Brookman as Clara, who dazzled with a number of solo performances.

Father Christmas, of course, made an appearance, and it would not have been complete without a sing-along on the Twelve Days of Christmas.

My night at the Proms filled me with the kind of joy that can only be described as Christmas cheer. Since it was only held on two nights and I attended the latter, I cannot recommend highly enough to anyone that missed out to keep their diary free for next year's Proms. It is an evening to bring the Christmas spirit to any Grinch.