Get into the swing of the season with a new show at Anvil Centre.
Jingle, a big band Christmas show, is taking to the Anvil Centre Theatre stage for five shows from Dec. 15 to 18.
Local crooner Tony Barton takes to the stage with a 24-piece live orchestra and the Jingle Belles vocal trio of Tracy Neff, Natasha Dagostino and Jalen Saip. The show features arrangements by local composer-arranger Adam Jones – with a few guest appearances, including a group of kids called the Peanuts Gang, a big guy from up north and some other holiday surprises.
The Christmas fun is being brought to the stage by James Productions, which most recently brought local audiences Just Broadway, featuring the talents of Steve Maddock, Jennifer Hayes and Tracy Neff with live orchestra.
Director James Bryson is well known to New Westminster audiences, having been the music director and conductor for Royal City Musical Theatre productions for many years – productions that are also known for the presence of live orchestras.
“Jingle offers audiences another rare opportunity to hear that rich orchestral sound that James Productions is well known for,” a press release says.
Barton, who has performed with Barbara Streisand in Las Vegas and with the Blue Man Group in New York, is a Chicago native who fell in love with the big band style while he was working on a sports-related project: sewing goalie pads on his mother’s sewing machine in the basement of their home. Spending hours on the effort, he stayed entertained by listening to one of his dad’s cassette tapes of the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
It stuck. After getting a bachelor’s degree in music education and a master’s degree in opera, Barton entered the world of musical theatre. He has toured the Mediterranean on the Crown Princess cruise ship and performed a Michael Bublé tribute show across North America.
He founded his own company, AEB Productions, in 2011 with a tribute to Frank Sinatra called Blue Eyes Too, and always dreamed of creating a classic, family-friendly big band Christmas show in the Glenn Miller tradition.
He met Bryson two years ago – and together, they found a home for Jingle at the Anvil Centre Theatre.
The show is onstage Dec. 15, 16 and 17 at 7:30 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on Dec. 17 and 18.
Tickets are available through www.ticketsnw.ca or 604-521-5050.
See www.jamesproductions.ca for more on the show.
