MTP’s “Cool Yule” a Warm, Spectacular Holiday Treat

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

It is a generally acknowledged truth of the season that holiday entertainment often relies on a surplus of goodwill to mask a deficit of swing. Not so in Pelzer, where the Mill Town Players have mounted “A Cool Yule Classic Christmas Concert”—a production that discards the usual charitable grading curve and delivers instead a genuinely fabulous fa-la-la-la-la of a show. 

The evening does not so much begin as unfurl, possessing the specific, high-gloss sheen of a holiday art deco soundstage. Scenic designer Cameron Woodson will surely land on Santa’s “Good” list for his work on this set. 

The cast rises to the challenge of some of the most spectacular material from the Golden Age of holiday music, launching the show with such conviction that one can’t help but believe “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” The production’s greatest triumph is its refusal to treat even the most familiar Christmas songs with anything less than energy and imagination. 

The live band, led by Greg Day, is mostly tight and nimble—though the trumpet occasionally overpowers the room. Still, it sets a groove even in the slowest tunes, a feat easily overlooked in an era of prerecorded music in local theater. This ensemble refuses to sing the season’s songs with the fatigue of a supermarket PA system. Instead, each number arrives as a crisp, brassy invocation that snaps the room to attention. 

Show director and choreographer Danielle Horn deserves a stocking full of goodies and presents under the tree for giving life and vitality to a show that could have been little more than a series of holiday songs sung by those static behind microphones. Initially dubious about the dancing, I was grateful after the opening number for Horn’s vision and her success in making it happen. 

The production finds its surest footing where sentiment meets sophistication. Aviyana Suber’s “Sleigh Ride” is relieved of its usual plodding gait and rendered as a silken glide, with a nod to Ella Fitzgerald, while Eliza Burdette’s “The Christmas Waltz” arrives with a crystalline voice and brushed drums, evoking the specific domestic peace of candlelight and late-night dishes. 

Even “My Favorite Things”—that perennial interloper in the holiday songbook—is rehabilitated as a brisk, warm duet between Beverly Clowney and Suber. “(Everybody’s Waiting for) The Man with the Bag” swaggers on stage with sassy vocal licks by Wendi Rodgers, holding its own with some of the show’s better-known tunes. 

The men, in sparkling jackets that recall a young Frank Sinatra, do their part to keep the season—and the show—merry and bright. 

Brian Reeder, a Mill Town Player regular for good reason, brings his fun side to “Cool Yule,” channeling his inner Louis Armstrong on that song (written by Steve Allen for Armstrong), and the wacky “’Zat You, Santa Claus,” but is at his peak on his rat-pack influenced “Silver Bells,” “Winter Wonderland,” and the velvet vocals on “The Christmas Song.” Jackson Caito hits “Deck the Halls” and “Let It Snow” with 1940s flair, but it’s his lead in “Joy to the World” that clears the air with a vocal to match the song, one which too often sounds like a dirge when tackled by well-meaning choirs and carolers. Caito, backed by harmonies of the full cast, just soars. 

Matthew Merritt recalls a young Bobby Darin, especially in his wonderful “Christmas Auld Lang Syne,” backed by the harmonies of the entire cast. Merritt roams the stage, never losing his keen vocals in favorites such as “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” and “Happy Holidays.” 

Matt also takes lead vocals in one of the most surprising interpretations of a familiar song, complete with a trio of tap dancers—but you’ll need to see the show to discover which song brings the welcome surprise. 

Two performances, both backed by the full cast, may shine brightest.

When the inevitable “White Christmas” appears in the second half, the horn voicings lend it a burnished, restorative glow, less a song than a collective memory of a snowier, simpler timeline. Burdette’s lead vocals recall the clear upper register of Margaret Whiting, who sang many of these same songs in the 1940s, and the cast joins in with sweet harmonies that are familiar but welcome. 

This is followed shortly by Clowney’s “O Come All Ye Faithful,” delivered with enough power and glory to make Mahalia Jackson clap her hands in the Great Beyond. It’s a song she’s obviously sung many times, but her fresh take at the preview show, coupled with strong harmonies from the rest of the cast, was near angelic. 

By the time the evening pivots to “We Wish You the Merriest,” it’s impossible not to be thoroughly won over. The Mill Town Players have achieved that rare alchemy: they have taken the seasonal obligation of repertoire and polished it until it gleams with the shimmer of a bygone era of big bands in ballrooms during World War II, reminding us that these holiday songs, when handled with genuine craft, still possess the power to seduce and entertain.

“Cool Yule” opens Friday and runs weekends through Dec. 21. Tickets here.