BWW Reviews: Holy Night! A New Dynamic Duo Is Born as Carole J. Bufford & Eric Yves Garcia Celebrate the Holiday Season with Delightful Show at the Laurie Beechman

Remember when you were a kid and Mom and Dad threw their obligatory annual Christmas party for friends, family, and maybe a few obnoxious neighbors to engage in some good ole holiday cheer? Mom would dress up all fancy like and dapper Dad comically struggled with opening the bubbly, while you stood in the corner observing the curious ritual of adults at holiday play. You figured that once you grew up, you'd probably never see such scenes again.

That is unless you were at The Laurie Beechman Theatre last Thursday night when the dynamic duo of Carole J. Bufford and Eric Yves Garcia performed their fun new holiday show, A Christmas Carole & New Year's Yves, to a full house of adoring family, friends, and fans. Mischievously creeping through the darkened house, singing in sotto voce "Zat You, Santa Claus" (Jack Fox), Bufford takes the stage wearing a stunning, Christmas-green, backless sequined dress complete with silver tinsel dangling earrings and pouty red lips. Garcia soon follows in a smart, sexy, "Mad Man" power suit. They are the very picture of the perfect holiday host and hostess. Then the fun begins.

Much to Bufford's chagrin, her performing partner is a rather talkative fellow. While he flirtatiously dedicates his second song to a birthday girl in the audience, Bufford abruptly cuts his monologue short by informing the audience that whenever Garcia "goes off" in endless chatter, their most excellent pianist for the evening, Matt Baker, is to underscore with Gershwin melodies. With puppy dog eyes, Garcia finally croons "Christmas Waltz" (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne) to the birthday girl. Bufford follows with her own sweet rendition of "Miss You Most at Christmas Time" (Mariah Carey, Walter Afansieff). Party on.

Garcia slides to the piano, singing his own terrific jazzy arrangement of a frisky "Wintry Mix Medley," pieces of seven songs, including "Winter Weather," "A Winter Romance," "June in January," and "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm." Eric is clearly as accomplished seated at the keyboards as he is singing solo at any mic.

Bufford's next song, "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" (Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane), almost didn't make it into her favorite Christmas movie, Meet Me In St. Louis, as Judy Garland didn't like the somewhat depressing original lyrics. Bufford proceeds to sing this great holiday classic with a Garland-like tenderness that is enhanced with Baker's beautiful piano solo.

Then the show takes a decidedly twisted turn when Bufford announces she didn't want to include the holiday season perennial, "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (Frank Loesser) because "It's a date rape song." But she decides to go with the "No means yes" flow, comically drugging, bounding, and gagging Garcia throughout the number to the delight of the hysterically laughing audience. Bufford further explores her inner vixen--as well as her comedic side--with a provocative mash-up of "Maybe Next Year" (Meiko) along with her Santa dominatrix lament, "What Do Bad Girls Get?" (Joan Osborne). All that was missing was the red leather and Santa's whip. Yikes.

Then it's Garcia's turn to show his comic chops on "Man with the Bag" (Irving Taylor, Dudley Brooks, Hal Stanley), transforming the lyric into an ode to your neighborhood holiday season drug dealer. Bufford returns having changed into candy cane red and white stripped jammies and channels her inner child on one of the show's high points, "I Saw (Slutty) Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," in which she adds her own cheeky lyrics. While Carole leaves to change back into more elegant party garb, Yves expresses a bluer shade of Christmas, brilliantly reaching emotional depths on John Meyer's (who was in the audience) powerful "After the Holidays."

Bufford returns to offer the most emotionally charged song of the evening, "O Holy Night" (John Sullivan Dwight, Adolph Charles Adams), explaining that this most glorious of all Christian Christmas songs was written by a Jewish composer in 1847, with lyrics based on a French poem. Bufford's clear and powerful voice soars and evokes angels on high. For the finale the duo delivers a mash-up of "All Alone" (Irving Berlin) and "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" (Frank Loesser), sending us the cue that "this party's over." But hopefully only until next holiday season, when these two young rising cabaret stars should return to throw us yet another wild, glorious, musical party.

Photos by Russ Weatherford

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