Review: 'Miracle in Hamilton Park' by Seven Angels Theatre

WATERBURY, CT - Miracle in Hamilton Park…a virtual Christmas Cabaret Show is an important fundraiser for Seven Angels Theatre, celebrating 30 years of professional theatre in Hamilton Park in Waterbury. The virtual cabaret, a kind of Christmas Valentine, premiered Dec 5 and will be available online through Jan. 8, 2021.

Another Opening, Another Show.

Every year Seven Angels Theatre has had a spectacular Christmas Show, and I have attended most of those that have been produced most recently. This year the theatre continues the tradition with a virtual cabaret style show featuring many local favorite performers. This year, Jimmy Donohue directed the talented performers.

Those local favorites include Seven Angels Artistic Director Semina De Laurentis, WATR general manager and radio personality Tom Chute, Jimmy Donohue, Constantine Pappas, Broadway performer Marissa Perry, Mandy Leigh Thompson, Marcia Maslo, Juliette Koch, Joyce Follo Jeffrey; there are also special guests: Ed O’Neil, R. Bruce Connelly and Dan Lauria (THE WONDER YEARS.)

The cabaret show was filmed at Seven Angels Theatre from Nov. 8 through Nov. 15 with all of the necessary COVID-19 restrictions clearly in place.

The show opens with some clips of the rehearsal process and it was such a treat to see so many performers that I recognized from the 7A stage, although it was a bit tough to see the mostly empty theatre for the first time since March. We got a peek at the set for the cabaret and even a look at some of the tech used to produce it.

Ms. De Laurentis opens the cabaret with a brief history of the building in Hamilton Park that opened in 1929 (I learned something!) and then moves into a chat with her long-time friend Joyce Follo Jeffrey seated six-feet away, of course. The duo performed “We Need a Little Christmas” to start off the festivities. After this, Mr. Chute joined Semina in the beautifully decorated 7A lobby to co-host the rest of the show.

I won’t spoil your enjoyment of the cabaret by listing every musical number and who performed it, but you can rest assured that all of them are a marvelous “Valentine” to the holiday season. Just a few of my personal favorites were the fabulous Juliette Garrison Koch singing the Carpenter’s classic “Merry Christmas Darling,” Priscilla Squires performing “I’ll Be Home For Christmas;” Mr. Chute, known on the air as “The King of Culture,” and Marcia Maslo brought plenty of charm to their duet on “Winter Wonderland.”

Earlene Babcock was back in the diner sharing her trials of staying open in a pandemic and still mixing up some of her contemporary terms; she then performed my absolute favorite “12 Steps of Christmas,” with lyrics by the amazing Michelle Gotay. Another of my favorites was the memorable “Keeping Christmas” written by the late Richard DeRosa especially for Mr. Chute to perform, and he made many 7A supporters very happy when he did just that. The always adorable and incredibly talented Marissa Follo Perry got to perform “Never Fall in Love with an Elf,” and I am pretty sure that Mr. Donohue reprised his role of Buddy the Elf for a brief cameo during the opening. To continue the tradition, four of the tenors in the cast performed the beautiful “O Holy Night;” kudos to Mr. Pappas on his flawless “Ave Maria.”

It was smart to include photos of loads of past 7A productions; I had fun checking off how many of them I remembered seeing. Keep your eyes peeled for performances by Robert Melendez and Mandy Leigh Thompson and for videos sent in by Ed O’Neil, R. Bruce Connelly, Janine Molinari, and Dan Lauria. And be sure to watch until the end of the video to see a bunch of photos from the 7A archives, some of them going way back.

The onstage (but behind the scenery) musicians wore masks for all of the musical numbers and sounded great anyway. Brent Crawford Mauldin was the music director. The technical aspects of the filming are top-notch, making you feel like you are seated in the theatre, well, almost.

If you would like to view this great show, you can choose a week to watch and purchase tickets anytime during that week to view. Available weeks are Dec 5-11, Dec 12-18, Dec 19-25, Dec 26-Jan 1, Jan 2-8. The show starts on Saturday of each week at 7 PM. Only one ticket is needed per household, so you can invite your quarantine buddies to watch. Click for tickets: https://www.stellartickets.com/.../miracle-in-hamilton…

Special thanks to the Miracle in the Hamilton Park sponsors: ION Bank, Broderick Law Firm, LLC, Gary J. Westerman DMD, Naugatuck Window and Glass, Perry's Dry Cleaners, HJ Bushka & Sons Lumber & Millwork, The Big Dipper, Hopeville Neighborhood Association and Mobile Home Fix-it.

Nancy Sasso Janis has been writing theatre reviews since 2012 as a way to support local theatre venues. She posts reviews of well over 100 productions each year. In 2016, she became a member of the Connecticut Critics Circle. She continues to contribute theatre news, previews, and audition notices to local Patch sites. Reviews of all levels of theatrical productions are posted on Naugatuck Patch and the Patch sites closest to the venue. Follow the reviewer on her Facebook pages Nancy Sasso Janis: Theatre Reviewer and on Twitter @nancysjanis417 Check out the NEW CCC Facebook page.