Night Clubs Reviews

Nov 18, 2007 - Santa arrives with a sonic boom in David King's "Spirit of Christmas" at the Eldorado

By jack Neal

It’s advertised as “The most enchanting Christmas show ever!” but that’s far from true. The 2007 edition of London producer David King’s “Spirit of Christmas” has opened in Reno at the Eldorado Hotel Casino.

With a cast that’s so good the show should be terrific, King squanders hard-working talent for a production that’s so loud it’s impossible to enjoy. Decibel levels are pumped to the nth degree making the show more a “Spirit of Gallstone Crushing” than a “Spirit of Christmas.”

Venerable showman Merrill Osmond is on board to draw in the crowds and he’s pleasant enough to please, but hardly the magnetic presence that might send show goers into ecstasy. Osmond is gracious - lots of hand shaking and greetings. He isn’t given much to do, although he does a passable “Impossible Dream” and take on sister Marie’s recent collapse on “Dancing With the Stars.” Beyond that, what the show needs isn’t a star, but inventive attention from its producer, and lots more direction from director Alan Harding to put it in order.

“Spirit of Christmas” opened Tuesday (11/13/07), by press night (11/15/07) quick costume changes were still not always completed by the time a dancer had to be on stage, some of the costumes were showing signs of age (recycled perhaps from other David King shows), and people were still running into one another on stage.

Under-rehearsed and over-hyped this year’s “Spirit of Christmas” will undoubtedly settle in and be at least what it could be under King’s copy-and-paste approach to a holiday show, but – oh, my – it could be so very much more with the hard-working and gifted cast on hand.

Once past a series of lighting snafus (designs by Mike McCain) and a very strange Santa (suffering from shock, no doubt from the concussion of light flashing around him), the opening sequence – beyond its sonic-boom sound - presents the kind of wholesome showbiz Christmas-show events worthy of a strong close.

Stranger than the light-dodging santa, is the “There’s No Business, Like Show Business” Can Can that’s been inserted to flesh out the show’s obligatory 75 minute running time. Nicely danced, but flashing the old tush, is hardly (in what otherwise could be billed as a family show) what mom and dad and granny and gandpa have in mind for a holiday outing with the kiddies.

Production singers Mandy Kerridge, David Wyatt and Julia Mansfield are an attractive trio and sing and move well. Wyatt sings a reverential “O Holy Night,” but is torpedoed by sound levels more reminiscent of the heyday at Nevada’s atomic test site than that peaceful, mystic night in Bethlehem 2000 years ago.

Audiences may enjoy David King’s “The Spirit of Christmas,” and in fact seemed to on press night. It’s my contention that audiences will enjoy this show much more as is, if the show’s sound is lowered considerably. Amplified sound should approximate the real thing, not the roaring stuff that’s damaged the hearing of several generations of youngsters.

“Spirit of Christmas” can be seen in the Eldorado Hotel Casino Showroom, 345 North Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada, Tuesday through Sunday at 7p.m. with an additional show Saturdays at 9:30 p.m., through December 28 (2007). Costs are $28.95, $33.95 for VIP seating, and $38.95 for producer seating, and $23.95 for seniors and children. For additional information and tickets call 1-800-879-8879 or go online at eldoradocasino.com.