Ensemble Announced For Olney's THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

Olney Theatre Center has announced the quartet of actors performing in The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, a special 90-minute variety show created and directed by Kevin McAllister just for Olney Theatre Center that runs December 16 - December 31, 2022 in its 1938 Original Theatre. The ensemble features Jay Frisby (The Music Man), Kaiyla Gross (Miss You Like Hell), Patricia Hurley (Mary Poppins, Elf), and Nick Lehan (Evita). Christopher Youstra, Olney's Associate Artistic Director for Music Theatre, leads a five-piece band and serves as the cabaret's music director and arranger.

The revue runs alongside Olney's two other holiday offerings currently playing, Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Paul Morella's solo A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab.

Said program creator and director Kevin McAllister, "We've created the show to demonstrate the similarities across all holidays. Sure, the constructs change depending on history and ancestry but the impulse is shared. Candles, food, and family provide comfort and bring families together in ways that cross communities. We'll use fun and inventive ways to show those similarities while celebrating what makes each one unique. We'll have everything from Perry Como hits to the worst of he novelty songs like "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer," traditional Chanukah songs like "Ma-O-tzur," and Mariah's "All I Want For Christmas." But working with the performers, we'll also have songs of personal meaning like "Bohemian Rhapsody," "I Will Survive," and "Don't Stop Believing" - songs of modern bonding that unite friends and family at a great party. We'll have 90 minutes to find common ground that for an evening unites us and sends us back out into the world with a smile and sense of optimism." Tickets are $30 - $60 and can be purchased at olneytheatre.org or 301-924-3400.

McAllister and Youstra are joined by longtime Olney performer Ashleigh King as Choreographer, with sets by Nadir Bey, costumes by Julie Cray Leong, lights and projections by Sarah Tundermann, and sound by Matt Rowe

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