Jeff Harnar, Todd Murray, KT Sullivan, Stacy Sullivan

We Love the Winter Weather—Songs of the Season

Birdland, NYC, December 8, 2025

Reviewed by Jerry Osterberg

Having first presented We Love the Winter Weather two years ago, the original troupe of Jeff Harnar, Todd Murray, KT Sullivan, and Stacy Sullivan returned to perform a delightful encore. The show was filled with many traditional holiday standards that contained poignant Christmas memories, funny lyrics, and a few surprises, performed by a quartet of iconic cabaret singers, all at the top of their game.

The ensemble opened with a trio of well-known tunes that projected vivid images of the Christmas season: “Remember” (Harry Nilsson), “The Happy Time” (John Kander/Fred Ebb), and “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” (Eddie Pola/George Wyle). This was clearly an emphatic statement if there ever was one.

Stacy led the group through “I Love the Winter Weather” (Ted Shapiro), which included striking harmonies and solos. Jeff followed with two holiday standards: “Winter Wonderland” (Felix Bernard/Richard Bernhard Smith), and “Let It Snow! Let it Snow! “Let it Snow!” (Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn), before increasing the pace a bit with “Hanukkah in Santa Monica” (Tom Lehrer). KT kept the fun flowing with “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” (Randy Brooks).

KT joined with Stacy and the ensemble for some moving moments in “Merry Christmas to Me” (Addy Fieger/Danny Apolinar) and “Hard Candy Christmas” (Carol Hall). Stacy followed with “Christmas Morning, 1969” (Heather Sullivan/Tim Sullivan), a touching tune written by her siblings, which reflected vivid memories of the sounds, sights, and scents of Christmas.

Todd, who has performed frequently with Stacy, joined her for a hilarious parody of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” (Frank Loesser), with new lyrics written by Lydia Liza and Josiah Lemanski. Thus, the politically correct version of the song—by today’s standards—included such lyrics as “You deserve the right to say no,” “I’m glad we had a really nice time,” and “Text me at your earliest convenience,” performed by the guy while the girl’s words continued to reflect pure innocence.

Todd followed with his own composition, “I’m Getting into the Swing of Christmas,” a perfect contribution by this present-day crooner and an ideal transition to the more traditional holiday songs such as “Do You Hear What I Hear?” (Noel Regney/Gloria Shayne), which he delivered with great feeling along with Jeff and pianist/music director Jon Weber. Jeff and the ensemble added “In the Window” (traditional) and Peter Yarrow’s perennial “Light One Candle,” a plea for world peace, first performed by Peter, Paul, and Mary in the 1980s. “Oh Holy Night” (Adolphe Adam/John Sullivan Dwight/Placide Cappeau), long a part of the repertory for Christian choirs, was performed by the ensemble with intense feeling.

The finale, a joyful medley of songs from the popular 1950s film White Christmas, was performed by the characters from the movie. Todd was the Bing Crosby character, KT was Rosemary Clooney’s, Stacy was Vera-Ellen’s, and Jeff was Danny Kaye’s.  Among the Irving Berlin songs were “Blue Skies,” “Sisters,” “Snow,” “Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep),” “Love, You Didn’t Do Right by Me,” and the title song, which was performed with the audience’s participation. This was delivered with much joy and enthusiasm and was a perfect ending to a marvelous show.