"An Evening Of Christmas Cheer"

Nottingham Arts Theatre

You just can't fail to get into a Christmassy spirit with these performers, all of which you may have seen in various productions at the theatre over the last twelve months.

There are traditional Christmas songs and carols, Christmas pop standards, Christmas readings, comical parodies and humorous oratories of a seasonal flavour.

Singalongs, raffles and tokens for free warm mulled wine and mince pies, as well as complimentary programme with songsheet. The Arts Theatre really did go that extra mile to make sure that every audience member left feeling in a Christmas mood.

Amy Rogers-Gee , Barry Hobbs, Bertie Black , Daisy Donoghue , Emme Gunn , Hannah Enderby , Hermione Cumbers, Kate Russell, Marie Rogers , Mike Pearson , Olivia Bonham , Roy Smith, Shantanu Bhumbra and Sophie Benner were the cast for this one night only Christmas cracker of a show.

It's not easy to pick highlights from this show, due to every section holding something just a little special, but I loved the sentimentality of Barry's "The Christmas Song", Daisy, Emme and Amy's gorgeous rendition of " O Holy Night", Bertie's humorous take on Jona Lewie 's "Stop The Cavalry", Amy, Marie, Bertie and Shan's alternative version of " The 12 Days Of Christmas", Marie and Mike's "Politically Correct Christmas", Hannah's "The First Noel", which reminded me vocally of Kate Rusby, Mike, Bertie, Shan, Roy and Barry channelled Michael Bublé for "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas", Olivia and the rest of the ladies' rousing version of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You", plus a unique version of "Ding Dong Merrily On High". So much crammed into a two hour show.

A wonderfully entertaining show that put everyone in an almighty Christmas groove. Bring on the Brussel sprouts, Christmas I'm ready for you!