“Home For The Holidays” 4 Chairs at Hey Nonny!

**** I have been a loyal fan of 4Chairs Company since its inception. Lauren Berman works with her singers, finding their inner qualities and bringing them out so that the crowd is fully entertained. Most people overlook the fact that “4 Chairs” had FIVE stools onstage to handle the five singers for their “holiday show”, “Home For The Holidays”.

The format is simple. The piano player and the five singers take their places after being introduced. The songs selected are not your typical Christmas songs ( oh, yes, they do some Hanukah songs as well). The music selected is a combination of comedy bits, Broadway music ( relating to the holidays), seasonal and of course, Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”.

Carolyn Sundlof Boudreau started the evening off with an adorable ( somewhat X-rated) number, “The Facebook Song”. She was dynamite and gave us the impression that this evening would be even better than anticipated. It was!

Scott Spector, for the most part was there to bring us a smile with his version of “The Grinch”, later he did Adam Sandler’s “Hannukah” and did a wonderful duet with Dylan Smith “For Good” from “Wicked”.

By the way, Smith was a student of Mrs. Boudreau in high school and their duet of “Winter Song” was terrific.

A lot more comedy was added to the evening with Denise Tamburrino ( with Christmas Wish” and her story about “White Christmas” which led to a sing-along with the audience). She also ended the first act with Mrs. Boudreau with “That Horrible Woman”. Last , but certainly not least, was the vibrant and talented Elise de Roulet. Her bubbly personality  was right on target with “I Could be Jewish”, “TMI” ( too much information) , “My House” and again, her duet with Carolyn (“It Comes As No Surprise”).

By the way, Dylan did a solo number, “Caterpillar” that showed off his range and the entire cast, including pianist Tyeese did the final number, “Happiness” making the evening a true experience.

While it would be great for this show to be done more than once, it is part of the Hey Nonny “thing” to have different music every night. Check out  www.heynonny.com. To see what Lauren will highlight next, visit www.4chairstheatre.org