Review: Michael Colby's HOLIDAY REGARDS at Urban Stages Is a Lovely Treat

Over the years, he’s crafted many articulate lyrics with references specific to one holiday after another with enough songs to fill a show — so you might say that Michael Colby is never at a loss for words. Holiday Regards, with five singers and one singing pianist, presents a musical tour of the calendar with melodies provided by more composers than there are months in a year. The program debuted on the fourth day of the annual Winter Rhythms series at Urban Stages (259 West 30th Street, New York, NY), packed with performances featuring many familiar cabaret, theatre, and jazz figures, many in group shows. The cost per seat for one show is $35, but there's a savings of $10 if you purchase tickets for two shows that are on the same day (a "double header") if you buy them at the same time (total: $60).  The quite varied programs take up a stretch of consecutive dates, with evening performances and matinee slots on the weekends. Holiday Regards debuted on one such afternoon (Saturday, December 7, 2024). If you missed it, a second performance is set for tonight, Sunday December 8th, plus a just-announced third show on the evening Monday, December 16th (extending the flurry of festivities one night beyond its originally scheduled ending). The talented core company will remain the same, but special guest artists (and their song or songs) will be different each time.  Winter Rhythms’ ticket sales fund the theatre’s outreach efforts that bring the arts to underserved children in locations around the area and make other projects possible for all kinds of audiences and artists (paid) to participate.  

Conveniently, some material in musicals Michael Colby co-wrote in his career is ripe for the picking, as he could pick from shows that have content related to specific holidays. The tones and moods of the selections ranged from dismay to determined, and from playful to poignant, from carpe diem to clever.  In the way of dismay, there was Celia Berk with gravitas and grace soloing on “I Can’t Understand” for Earth Day, an understandably troubled reaction to many people’s lack of concern for the environment (music by Michele Brourman). Determination that the nation can’t be healed if hate is met with hate, stating that “Only Love Can Do That” was persuasively delivered by Christina Sajours, honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. and his philosophy as a nod to the annual celebration of his January birth date (music: Sheldon Becton). A playful moment came as Megan Styrna and Nikita Burshteyn cheerily crawled around on an “Easter Egg Hunt” (melody: Ned Paul Ginsburg) with merry music director/pianist Michael Lavine chiming in, gamely placing fluffy white rabbit ears atop his head.  The poignancy arrived when Eric Michael Gillett drew on his acting chops and sense of dramatic timing as a man explaining to his beloved child what “The Greatest Gift” for Father’s Day would be. (The affecting melody for this is by none other than Mr. Colby’s wife, Andrea Colby.) Alex Rybeck’s melody brought out the carpe diem message of being in the moment to appreciate “This Minute,” sung by the ensemble.  A clever take on “Cupid” didn’t let Valentine’s Day be as sticky sweet or rosy as, respectively, the candy and flowers that usually go with that holiday, and Bill Zeffiro’s melody is a true treat.  It brings out the slyness in the lyric by Michael Colby wrote and Michael Lavine and Eric Michael Gillett (that’s a lot of “Michael” power) appeared to have a ball with it as a duet. There were some rather large doses of earnestness and a couple of servings of rah-rah American pride for the patriotic holidays, a dash of silliness, and — as you rightly assume –  timely attention to Christmas and Chanukah (the first night of which coincides with Christmas this year).

Holiday Regards is directed by Sara Louise Lazarus.  Serious songs were allowed to be fully and unabashedly serious, lighter moments evidenced permission to be cheery.  I don’t know if she over-encouraged Megan Styrna, costumed in a short white dress with anklet socks and with a bow in her hair to turn up the “little girlish” and gleeful qualities, but the “cuteness” quotient might be better if scaled back a bit. There’s some simple staged movement and gestures that feel “directed” and dutifully presented; when songs ended, holding final poses crisply made distinct impressions and cued applause.  She also has the performers connect with the audience via eye contact, with actors using the same M.O. in group numbers, turning their heads to each other, smiling and nodding to indicate they were emotionally on the same page.  Unfortunately, they were allowed to have their eyes on literal pages — pages of sheet music in loose-leaf notebooks that they carried with them and were gazing upon quite a bit (some more than others, less often in solos). This too-common practice can make book-in-hand numbers seem like we’re watching a rehearsal of a work in progress that hasn’t made sufficient progress and needs work.  However, I should point out that each member of the company was given a lot to take on, especially in view of the fact that many of Michael Colby’s lyrics are dense (not a lot of short lyrics with choruses containing the exact same words repeating multiple times), some tempi are brisk, and in group singing there are echoed lines and harmonies to learn.  Giving credit where it’s due, they are pros who soldiered on, didn’t lose their place or lose their grace, and still managed to interact visually and have energy.  But what a difference (and what a relief) when someone was off-book!

A few puzzling choices were distracting. First off, Holiday Regards started off with introductory comments by Michael Colby — but not on the stage, in person, as was the case with other events he curated. Instead, his smiling face appeared on screen and we heard him speak about the show’s concept and contents; a few more brief filmed spoken segments set up certain songs during the proceedings.  Had he recently fallen ill or had a schedule conflict? It turns out he was there, possibly in the tech booth, which I found out at the end; as we exited, he was in the lobby and accessible.  During the singing, the names of the song, composer, and performer appeared on the ever-present screen, along with some visuals and pithy quotes from famous people, including a few U.S. presidents, Mark Twain, Anne Frank, and Yoko Ono.  Piano intros were brief and entrances were brisk, so this caused a split-focus situation as there wasn’t always time to read everything while trying to take in the first few lines of the lyrics and watching what the singers were establishing visually.  The silver lining of this minor cloud is that audience members weren’t rustling their programs in the dark to find the credits that were on the screen.  Although the song list page indicated that the special guest du jour would appear prior to an unnamed finale, and actress-singer Linda Purl was named and pictured elsewhere in the booklet program as the celebrity, along with an indication of what was to come when we’d hear her sing (“When I Hear You Speak” with music by Giuliano Ciabatta), the company sang “This Minute” splendidly, and then they took group bows and individual bows, gestured to Michael Lavine to acknowledge him and cue deserved applause for his stalwart and striking work, they exited to cheers.  So, I (and, I think, others) assumed it was over and that Linda Purl had to cancel. I was happy to be wrong. There she was, and we were told that the selection was a connection to National Telephone Day, drawing attention to that mode of communication invented by Alexander Graham Bell. The name of this “holiday” might not "ring a bell," but for some reason it falls on April 25th, even though Bell’s birthday and the day he proved his device worked both occurred in March. Anyway, it’s a happy thing about the pleasure of listening to someone’s voice when you get that welcome call and Linda Purl glowed as she sang it, sounding joyful and involved.  In other words, she didn’t "phone it in." And it was one more example of the many colors of Colby co-creations capturing characters, slices of life, positivity, emotions, and perspectives.  There’s a lot to take in and your ears will be full. And, maybe your heart will be, too.

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See www.urbanstages.org for the full calendar of this series, tickets, and more about the theatre.

See Michael Colby’s website, full of info and song samples: www.michaelcolby.com

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