Holiday show set for Sunday
12/5/2014, 6 a.m.
Out with “Amahl.”
In with “Home for the Holidays.”
After more than 50 years, the City of Richmond is replacing the classic Christmas operetta “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” the musical about a young disabled boy who is miraculously healed when he offers his crutch as a gift to the newborn Jesus.
This year, the city is offering “Home for the Holidays,” a variety show featuring gospel, jazz, dance and musical performances.
The goal: To revive interest in the annual holiday stage production, according to the city Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities.
The new show also is moving to a smaller venue. Instead of the 3,500-seat Altria Theater, “Home for the Holidays” will be presented in the 700-seat auditorium at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, 1000 Mosby St. in the East End.
The new show will be 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, at the school. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
The list of performers includes gospel artist Larry Bland, Richmond Ballet’s youth troupe Minds in Motion, the Richmond Youth Jazz Guild under the direction of Ashby Anderson and singer Emma Davis from the “RVA Has Talent” competition.
For “Amahl” lovers, the change ends a Richmond tradition of presenting Gian Carlo Menotti’s operetta as a gift to the city. That tradition dates back to the early 1960s.
