Published December 21. 2025 12:06AM<\/p>\n
You can always depend on a fresh take on the holiday season with Touchstone Theatre\u2019s \u201cChristmas City Follies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some years, the show emphasizes numerous local references. Other years, the show looks at universal pop culture trends. Sometimes, the show has a political connotation in a sketch or two.<\/p>\n
The 26th edition, directed by Jp Jordan, puts forth feelings of warmth, amusement and gratitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cChristmas City Follies, XXVI,\u201d Dec. 4-21, is as cozy as hot cocoa and fuzzy slippers. After all, what is cozy if not dependable?<\/p>\n
The \u201cFollies,\u201d a series of sketches created and performed by the Touchstone Ensemble, varies from year to year, with a few returning characters. An over-riding theme, or through-line, is often developed. The Dec. 4 opening night performance was seen for this review.<\/p>\n
The closest political reference in the 2025 edition of \u201cFollies\u201d is a veiled swipe at the Bethlehem Parking Authority, which, considering its namesake, popularity of Hotel Bethlehem and newly-minted UNESCO World Heritage Site designation of the Moravian Church Settlements, one has it on high authority that the decks are often filled to merry measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cChristmas City Follies\u201d is a holiday humor destination. The audience, many of whom return year after year, look forward to familiar characters, such as Bill George\u2019s The Old Guy, whose laconic loquaciousness and observations, insights and philosophy never fail to alarm (in a cerebral way); Mary Wright\u2019s Little Red, whose silence speaks volumes and whose eyes, facial expressions and body language never fail to charm, and Panda Bear, whose costumed character cameo appearance alone draws child-like squeals of darn from an otherwise adult audience.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the thing about Touchstone\u2019s \u201cFollies.\u201d The Ensemble acts out and brings out the inner child in themselves and theater-goers. The 26th edition is particularly tuneful thanks to Music Director George Hrab.<\/p>\n
Samantha Beedle is especially in fine voice and is a standout comedic actor in several of the sketches.<\/p>\n
The choral and character work throughout by the Ensemble\u2019s Amber Charest, Dylan Gombos, Anisa Hosseini, Jolie Lanning, Kristin Pedemonti, Matt Prideaux and Alexa Rojo is exceptional. The originality of the concepts by the Ensemble in the sketches is exemplary.<\/p>\n
The Costumes and Properties by Lisa Jordan and Matt Prideaux are wonderfully whimsical and thoughtful in originality, design and quality.<\/p>\n
What would the Christmas City be without the \u201cChristmas City Follies\u201d? The city would be bereft rather than adrift in humor. The coziest aspect is the assurance that at Touchstone Theatre there will be a \u201cChristmas City Follies XXVII\u201d next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cChristmas City Follies XXVI,\u201d 8 p.m. Dec. 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 17, 18; 2 p.m. Dec. 7, 14, 21; 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Dec. 13, 20, Touchstone Theatre, 321 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem. 610-867-1689, http:\/\/www.touchstone.org\/<\/p>\n
PHOTO: ASHLI TRUCHON NOVAK\/VILLANOVAK\u201cChristmas City Follies XXVI,\u201d Touchstone Theatre, Bethlehem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published December 21. 2025 12:06AM You can always depend on a fresh take on the holiday season with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-66611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}