Review: Sharron and George’s Super Fun Christmas Sing-A-Long (Buddies In Bad Times Theatre)

Xmas 2013 Bicks

Super Fun Christmas Sing-A-Long is a Toronto Holiday Tradition with Legs — and Booze

What’s Christmas without a few good carols?

Taking the stage for a third year in a row, married couple Sharron Matthews and George Masswohl belt out all the holiday classics in their perennially popular spectacular, Sharron and George’s Super Fun Christmas Sing-A-Long.

It’s a fun night of surprise guests, hilarious banter, and of course, Christmas classics like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, O Holy Night, and my personal favourite, All I Want for Christmas Is You – complete with Sharron’s spot on Mariah Carey impression.

And if you’re like me and a little bit shy about singing in public, it’s a good thing that Buddies also has a fully licensed bar where you can order up a little bit of liquid courage. It’s a smaller venue, so you’ll be able to clearly hear how good, bad or tone-deaf the people around you are.

But none of that mattered, since at the end of the day, it was all about getting to relax with a group of people who are filled with as much holiday cheer as you are.

Now, I’ve been to many sing-a-longs in my day, and in my experience, it’s the hosts that make or break the production.

Funny, personable and razor sharp, Sharron and George took command of the stage that evening and delivered a banter that was at the same time natural and clever.

This wasn’t Shakespeare, Shaw or Ibsen – subject matter that took itself very seriously – it was just a group of friends on stage having a great time, and putting in their sincerest efforts to ensure the same audience of their audience members.

Speaking of guests, the evening featured a cavalcade of performers who each brought something magical to the stage.

Since the web page for this event had the word ‘secret’ in all-caps for ‘special SECRET guests, I won’t ruin the surprise by dropping any names, but let me just say that the guests appearances featured a hauntingly beautiful traditional Swedish carol, down south storytelling, a laugh-out-loud drag show, as well as a human impression Jingle Cats. That’s right – the popular 90’s phenomenon of cats meowing out Christmas classics.

This was a night not to be missed. If you’re looking for a fun way to get into the holiday spirit next year, be sure to make Sharron and George’s Super Fun Christmas Sing-A-Long part of your annual Christmas traditions.

I honestly could not have chosen a better production as my last review of 2014.

(On a side note, Happy Holidays, folks!)

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