Anthony Santelmo Jr
Christmas on Hallowe’en
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, October 31, 2016
Reviewed by Peter Haas for Cabaret Scenes
![Anthony Santelmo Jr](https://cabaretscenes.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Anthony-Santelmo-Jr-Cabaret-Scenes-Magazine_212.jpg)
Christmas came early this year—on Hallowe’en evening, in fact—as Anthony Santelmo Jr, lent his voice and charm to a program of Christmas songs. The bill of fare included a dozen classical, popular and show numbers, presented in Don’t Tell Mama’s cozy Brick Room and illuminated by Santelmo’s sturdy operatic voice and warm, hearty, audience-embracing spirit.
With Barry Levitt presiding at the piano, Santelmo moved smoothly through a varied program that included film songs: “This House Has Never Known Such Love” (Bill Conti & Norman Gimbel from Five Days from Home) and Johnny Mercer’s “Santa Claus Came in the Spring” from To Beat the Band; theater songs: (Stephen Sondheim/Jule Styne’s “If I Had Three Wishes for Christmas,” cut from Gypsy) and “This Merry Christmas” (Morgan Lewis/Nancy Hamilton) from Two for the Show; and an array of popular and classical numbers celebrating the festive, family and religious aspects of the holiday. Also represented: Frederic Chopin, with his “Etude in E Minor” transformed into “Almost Christmas Eve”—via the imagination of Ken Hirsch, Rosie Casey and Steve Ross; and cabaret’s own Francesca Blumenthal, writer of the warm encore, “Christmas in New York.”
Santelmo’s program of Christmas songs—no matter what season he performs it—is a lovely concert-like gem that deserves an annual outing.