Adam Prudhomme
Editor
If ever there’s a cast that embodies the phrase ‘the show must go on’, it’s the cast and crew of the Newburgh Community Christmas show.
Not even a global pandemic can prevent the comedic musical variety show from taking place, which is gearing up for its 41st year on Dec. 5. The format did alter just a bit however and will now be broadcast via YouTube, which will be uploaded to www.WoodCreativeGroup.com/ccc2020 at 7 p.m. as well as released on the group’s social media pages.
The previous 40 years have been held inside Newburgh Public School in front of a packed gymnasium audience. Rest assured, fans of the holiday themed show will still get to share some laughs while raising funds for kids in need.
“We talked a lot about it and obviously the easy way just would have been to take a year off,” said Mae Whalen, organizer for the Newburgh Community Christmas Concert. “We kind of felt it was important to bring that little bit to our audiences, even though we can’t physically see each other, we all thought just having an opportunity to at least be able to watch the concert in some form was better than no concert at all.”
The online broadcast will include a mix of previously recorded shows as well as new content that was filmed in 2020.
“Basically our format this year, we did gather to do an opening and closing song for 2020. All nicely physically distanced so everybody will be happy,” said Whalen. “We also had everybody film their own closing lines that we do at the end of the show. They’ll be new and we have a couple of other kind of skits that we were able to do virtually that will be in there as well.”
Whalen says they’ve poured over video from the last decade to put together a retrospective from shows that were staged between 2010-19.
“What we’re doing, I’m in the middle of it right now as a matter of fact, is we’re doing a retrospect back on the last 10 years of different skits that we’ve done,” said Whalen. “It’ll be a combination of new stuff and some older stuff as well.”
Lester Brown and Trina Kelly did their own special rendition of 12 Days of Christmas-showing off ‘two French hens’ in one of the many hilarious skits performed during last year’s 40th annual Newburgh Community Christmas Concert. Photo by Adam Prudhomme.
In recent years they’ve entrusted the filming to her youngest son, who just so happens to be a Film major. That proved to be a good decision on their part as the quality of the recordings have since skyrocketed.
“It’s kind of fun just to look back and see how things have changed,” Whalen said of the previous performances. “I think folks will enjoy it and we have a feeling a lot more people who have never been out to see a concert will actually access it this year because they can.”
In a normal year, audience members would be encouraged to drop off a monetary donation at the door as they were filing into the gym to watch the concert. This year will be a bit different. Cash donations can now be made at McCormick’s in Camden East, Gray’s IDA in Napanee or Devon Café in Tamworth. Online Etransfers can be made to thecommunitychristmasconcert@gmail.com. Donations can be made up to Dec. 8.
“We’re still going to do what we’ve always done with the donations, its still going to happen that we’ll be shopping,” said Whalen. It’ll look different, we won’t be able to all gather as a big group so we’ll be a little more creative when we do that.”
Once again the cast will be working with local schools to ensure the money raised goes towards providing gifts for less fortunate families this holiday season.
While raising money is their main focus, providing laughs in a year that has been difficult for many is another reason the show must go on.
“You’ll see a little smattering of everything, political skits, no doubt you’ll see the guys in drag, trying to decide which one to use is always fun. We kind of broke down all the years so that we can make sure that everybody gets a little bit of everything they’ve always seen in the past,” said Whalen. “If the guys aren’t in drag, it’s just not Christmas.”