Everything about the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular is absolutely top-notch.
The Cedar Community Hall is dressed to the nines, so to speak. It’s a magical room with lots of Christmas lights, red ribbon, Christmas balls and greenery, and the hall just sparkles.
The singers, dancers and musicians on stage are all very talented. The costumes are beautiful. The sound is fantastic.
Everything runs so smoothly, and it’s easy to see why this six-year-old production by Katy Bowen-Roberts, who grew up in Ladysmith, has become a Christmas tradition.
The Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular transports you to a happy and festive place for just over two hours. It’s a fun combination of Christmas music, other types of music — this year, it includes music from Singin’ in the Rain and Les Miserables, as well as tributes to Tom Jones, Neil Diamond and Marilyn Monroe — dancing and readings, and you quickly find yourself singing and clapping along and laughing out loud.
The show is very dynamic, with the mix of readings, songs and dances providing different levels, along with an audience sing-along and a Christmas quiz for the audience, which are really fun ways to engage the crowd.
This year’s show features 52 different pieces of music. Many of those pieces had the audience singing and clapping along, especially the Tom Jones and friends medley, which seemed to bring a lot of energy into the hall. Felix Leblanc was a great Tom Jones, and the audience knew all the words to his songs.
Christmas Around the World was a fun sampling of Christmas songs from Australia, Hawaii, Ireland and Spain that included tap dancing and hula.
A ballet solo from Swan Lake was beautiful and had the audience silent for the duration of the dance. Six White Boomers — an Australian Christmas carol sung by Sam Plett in an Australian accent while a dancer in a kangaroo costume danced around him — elicited lots of laughter, as did the many Marilyns who took part in the Marilyn Monroe tribute, and the Neil Diamond tribute when Plett and Leblanc wore sparkly shirts with vees that went down to their stomachs.
There are so many highlights, and the finale is fantastic — but I won’t spoil the surprise if you’ve never seen the show.
The Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular celebrates everything that is great about this season — community and friends and family coming together, timeless songs that everyone knows the words to, the joy of music, laughter and fun. The press material for the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular describes the Cedar Community Hall as a winter wonderland, and it really is. Besides the beautiful decorations, there is a Christmas gift shop and a concession offering mince pies and butter tarts, and the smell of hot apple cider fills the whole room.
Matinee and evening performances of the Yellowpoint Christmas Spectacular continue at the Cedar Community Hall at 2388 Cedar Rd. until Dec. 22. Call 250-754-8550 for tickets or visit the production's website for more information.