A Christmas Yuleblog

Several hours ago, the curtain came down on the run of "The FPT Christmas Revue". It was a project that I was closely involved with since the beginning of this year; a journey full of challenges, frustrations, joy, and remarkable achievements while bringing a totally new work to the stage. I must thank Thom Hofrichter and Joel D. Scribner for this amazing opportunity. These two gentlemen gave me a chance to showcase my perspective on Christmas and they were supportive of the whole process. I owe them a lot and I look forward to working with them on other shows at First Presbyterian Theater. Over 1000 people came out to see the show over its run and saw a plethora of talent. We had 30+ people in the cast, ages ranging from five to 70-something. We had members of five different families within the cast, a wide range of Christmas songs to sing, and each member of the cast gave it their all every night on the boards. To my fellow cast members, thank you so much. I go...

"I realize that things won't change much because of my little record, but if people stop to think a little about it, then it has been all worthwhile. Maybe it will pay off in another generation." - Stan Freberg on "Green Chri$tma$", 1958. 1958 Picture Sleeve Front Cover If I was to be stranded on a proverbial desert island and forced to choose only three Christmas CDs to accompany me, I would choose 1.) "A Charlie Brown Christmas" 2.) "Christmas Cocktails" and 3.) a custom compilation that would feature all of the recorded Christmas output by Mr. Stan Freberg - perhaps the last great satirist America has ever produced. Fifty years ago, Uncle Stan walked into his longtime home of Capitol Records located at Hollywood & Vine and recorded a Christmas single entitled "Green Chri$tma$", a song that was labelled "offensive", "sacrilegious", and "controversial" for its time. Capitol barely rel...