The Kennedy Center ushered in the holiday season with a spectacle featuring Christmas standards, sacred hymns, and an abundance of holiday pageantry hosted by Virginia native Charles Billingsley and his big band. Also featuring performances from TaRanda Greene, The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, The National Christian Choir Ensemble, and special guest star, award winning, Grammy-nominated Christian singer-songwriter Matthew West, the program covered the entire spectrum of holiday classics with a little of something for everybody, while not afraid to lean into a deeply reverent finale.
After a concerning report last week that the event had only sold around 350 seats (with another 120-ish comped) at the 2500 seat Opera House, it was refreshing to see a nearly packed orchestra and first tier balcony, as well as many of the grand boxes, for the one night only holiday spectacular. At this point, it’s comforting to see patrons showing up en masse to support the artists, which is exactly the gift that the Kennedy Center needs this holiday season.
Amid a festive set featuring Christmas trees with color changing LED lights and a projection screen that saluted every aspect of the holidays from vintage holiday cards and wrapping paper patterns to ugly Christmas sweaters and gorgeous watercolor paintings of the Christmas story at the heart of the evening, Billingsley and his big band started off the evening with a set of swing versions of secular standards, Opening with “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas”. And continuing with a fun set including “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”, “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”, and “The Man With The Bag”, he croons and swings like the love child of Bing Crosby and Michael Bublé. And as if his band wasn’t swing worthy enough, they were at times augmented by the always superlative Kennedy Center Orchestra for a powerful combined sound.
Matthew West, a frequent flyer on my annual Christmas Playlists with no less than four Christmas albums to his name, sang his Christmas radio hit “Come On, Christmas” as well as other favorites. West is a gifted songwriter who can write the elusive holiday originals that land the same as beloved classics.
Billingsley returned to share some personal stories about his family and history and switched to some more traditional carols. His set culminated with a stunning a capella arrangement of “Silent Night” backed up by the National Christian Choir.
This led to the grand finale of the program, where, joined by Christian singer TaRanda Greene and a bevy of costumed performers who formed a live Nativity on stage (and posed outside the Kennedy Center afterwards). As the Shepherds and Wise Men journeyed through the audience to arrive on stage with their gifts, a hush fell over the audience as Green and Billingsley and the entire company combined to share their gifts of sacred song.
If there was one disappointing aspect of the evening, it was in sharp contrast with last week’s Kennedy Center Honors, where everyone was well-rehearsed with their responses that “We’re here for the Art, Not for the politics.” I would expect the same sentiment would be extended for the holidays. But there were more than a few salutes praising controversial Trump-appointed Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell, whose benefit to the organization is still under debate from different factions. West praised a day at the Pentagon with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, most newsworthy recently for his vocal condemnation of the Netflix don’t-ask-don’t-tell military series Boots than anything in his official capacity. The most unabashed instance was the surprise appearance by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to narrate the first passage of the Gospel of Luke leading into the Nativity, which provoked a handful of spontaneous walkouts. The lesson: Moreso than Art, Politics has absolutely no place in Christmas.
Overall, the evening was a beautiful, delightful, and reverential mix of secular and blessed holiday fare and the emphasis after the opening fun was indeed the message of Jesus’ birth. Billingsley closed with a heartfelt statement that he had such a wonderful time hosting the event he’d love to come back next year, and continued to sing the crowd out with a rousing “Feliz Navidad” . It would be a welcome throwback to traditional seasonal entertainment with a worthy host and well-chosen guests. Just next time for Christmas, not Politics.
All photos courtesy of Tim Hart
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes with no intermission