Word: songs
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...HAIRY DOGS. On a table is a phonograph for his four children-ages six, eight, ten and twelve -and Amy Carter to play if they happen to come by in the afternoon. On the turntable last week was a 45 r.p.m. record of a satirical country-and-western song titled I'll Pump the Gas, Jimmy (You Run the Country...
...then Santa sold out. More specifically, he sold the rights to his name and his holiday to a multinational business seeking to diversify. Amalgamated Widget Corporation got Santa's franchise for a song, because old Claus had no idea that his hobby was of any value, and besides, his doctors had been urging him for years to retire for his health. His job gave him ulcers. So Santa left Christmas behind to spend his last years breeding mutant strains of reindeer for high-speed sleigh competition, and Amalgamated Widget became The Santa Corporation...
When the shopping trip is over, you may be convinced that "Jingle Bells" is a song about cash registers, and that green is a traditional Christmas color because people spend huge amounts of money for the holiday. Christmas shopping is here to stay, the department stores insist, and even good ole' Santa Claus will join the mobs eventually...
Ironically, the show, which succeeds because it is generally energetic and funny, cannot muster a rousing close. For a moment Toni Bianco seems on the verge of salvaging the last song with a parody of singers who just stand still and use cliched gestures, but it isn't what the audience has come to hope for. The audience calls for more anyway, and, recognizing that they want more of something besides the closing number, the cast reprises "Sing Happy." They are happier now, and the audience is happier now, but the reprise is still a reminder of the parts that...
Although the musicians are excellent and the costumes clever, neither can provide the needed base to tie the whole show together. The songs in Nightcaps seem chosen at random for no particular purpose with no specific standards. The first half closes with "Anything Goes," hardly a neglected tune. Despite some updated lyrics and dynamic dancing, the song's presence asks the questions "Why these songs? Why this show?" and answers with the song's title...