With the production of the Smithfield Little Theatre's Christmas in Dixie, billed as a Christmas Variety Show, we are given the chance to hear and experience music of the season once more. For those of us old enough to remember holiday shows like The King Family, Bing Crosby, and Andy Williams the idea of such an offering might be quite attractive. However with this conglomeration of selections we're reminded more of The Muppet Show, only without the cute little characters and the humor that went along with them.

At the beginning of this musical journey we witness a young girl entering the stage in a nightgown and stopping a couple of times to shush the audience. The fact that the audience was making no sound didn't matter, for she had been directed to do this by the show's Producer and Director Nonie Kellogg. The young lady then opens a chest that's sitting in front of a small couch and takes out a teddy bear. The first music selection of the evening is Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24, a recording (as was almost every bit of music presented), and the stage is filled with dancers from the Southside Ballet. The "costumes" they were wearing weren't suggestive of Christmas, but something else. Bare-midriffs showing, they cavorted about the stage drawing the little girl into their movements. All right I thought, I can see this show's concept of something seen through the eyes of a child. A pedestrian, unimaginative way to create the story line but it turns out I was mistaken. At the end of the first number the dancers disappeared, the girl placed the bear back into the trunk and lay down on the couch to sleep. A mother figure stepped in from off stage and put a blanket over her. We never saw the child character again.

Instead we were treated, no that's the wrong word... subjected to a series of songs, dances, and moments of "humor" for the rest of the evening. Without any apparent thought to the differences of secular versus sacred music, we witnessed Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree being followed by Go Tell It on the Mountain, O Holy Night by Christmas in Dixie. I couldn't decide if the choices made in song order were deliberate, or had been purely random.

There was no flow from moment to moment, no pacing of the show, rather a choppy disconnect that drove me to distraction.

Throughout the show we would watch someone step onstage to sing, and as the number progressed people would wander onto the stage and do bits of "business" that would distract the audience from the performer. This directorial choice of staging happens by thinking that there must be something happening onstage at all times. So rather than allow the audience to enjoy a solo performance it becomes an ensemble thing, even though the ensemble rarely does little more than swing back and forth to the music.

There are only two moments in the show worth mentioning. The first was a beautiful performance of White Christmas by Brian Pinner and James Ford, and danced by Rebecca Doyle. The second was a gorgeous arrangement of Mary Did You Know? sung by Anita Wyrick and Kaitlin Bowles, accompanied by two guitarists not mentioned in the program. Unfortunately both of them happen in the first act, and we're left with a second act that's just more of everything else I've already mentioned. It's really a shame, for

this could have been a wonderful evening of holiday entertainment if only a little more thought and preparation had gone into the show itself.