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Where | Alabama Theatre, Barefoot Landing, U.S. 17, North Myrtle Beach
When | 7:30 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays through Dec. 23, Dec. 26-30, and Jan. 1; also 2 p.m. some weekdays and Saturdays; and 3 and 9 p.m. Dec. 31
How much (including tax) | $39.45, $43.80 and $49.25 ages 17 and older; $19.95 ages 4-16
Show length | About two hours, with a 15-minute intermission
More info | 272-1111 or 800-342-2262, or www.alabama-theatre.com
"THE CAROLINA OPRY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL"
Where | The Carolina Opry, northern junction of U.S. 17 Bypass and U.S. 17 Business, Myrtle Beach, next to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede Dinner Attraction
When | 1 or 7 p.m., depending on date, through Dec. 20 and Dec. 26-Jan. 2.
How much (including tax) | $39.95, $45.95 and $54.95 ages 17 and older; $26 ages 3-16 and students with ID
Show length | About 2 1/3 hours, including 20-minute intermission
More info | 913-8888, 913-4000 or 800-843-6779; or www.thecarolinaopry.com
"CHRISTMAS AT DIXIE STAMPEDE!"
Where | Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede Dinner Attraction, northern junction of U.S. 17 Bypass and U.S. 17 Business, Myrtle Beach, next to The Carolina Opry
When | 4, 6 or 8 p.m., depending on date, through Dec. 23, Dec. 26-31
How much (including tax) | $46.40 and $51.93 ages 12 and older; $24.30 and $29.83 ages 4-11.
Show length | Main arena show about 90 minutes, with no intermission; pre-show in Carriage Room about 30 minutes (starting 45 minutes before main show).
More info | 497-9700 or 800-433-4401, or www.dixiestampede.com
"CHRISTMAS ON ICE"
Where | Palace Theatre, Broadway at the Beach, 21st Avenue North and U.S. 17 Bypass, Myrtle Beach
When | 8 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 10 a.m. Wednesdays and 2 p.m. Thursdays through Dec. 23 and Dec. 27-Jan. 1
How much (including tax) | ages 13 and older: evenings $37.57, $42.95 or $48.32, matinees $32.20; ages 3-12: $10.70 all shows
Also | "Nuncrackers - The 'Nunsense' Christmas Musical," in King's Suite Showroom. Opens Nov. 17: 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Tuesdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 23 and Dec. 27-31. All tickets $32.20
More info | 448-0588 or 800-905-4228, or www.palacemb.com
"DINO'S TV CHRISTMAS SPECIAL"
Where | 2001 Entertainment Complex's Starlight Room, 920 Lake Arrowhead Road, north of Myrtle Beach
When | 7 p.m. usually Tuesdays and Thursday through Dec. 21 (except Nov. 25), and sometimes other dates such as today and Wednesday
Tribute artists include | Dean Martin, Phyllis Diller, Judy Garland, the Gold Diggers, Lennon Sisters, Marilyn Monroe, Dolly Parton, and Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes.
How much (including tax) | $29 show only, $39 with Italian meal served in the dinner theater, or $49 with dinner at The Original Benjamin's, nearby
Show length | 13/4-2 hours, including one intermission
More info | 234-2229 or www.dinostvvarietyshow.com
SEE MORE EVENTS ONLINE AT THESUNNEWS.COM.
Christmas cheer has begun snowing on the stages of area theaters. In Myrtle Beach, as soon as November rolls in, the carols come out.
The five major show houses each pour their own tinsel on to celebrate the season. This year features a silver anniversary, ice skating, 1960s throwbacks, traditional fare or a last hurrah locally for a herd. Legends in Concert, which usually has a Christmas show starring its tribute artists, has moved from Surfside Beach and will renovate the former Club Kryptonite at Broadway at the Beach, with plans to reopen in June.
Choose any of these shows for a festive flavor to keep anything humbug at bay.
The Carolina Opry
This Christmas season brings a silver-studded present that The Carolina Opry will spend a whole year unwrapping. Marking its 25th anniversary since debuting in 1985 with a Christmas show, the Opry has built a homecoming for its artists and audiences.
Rocky Fretz of Myrtle Beach remembered seeing the Opry's want ad in The (Columbia) State when living in Charleston, newly married.
"It was advertising year-round entertainment positions," he said.
The pianist would end up playing, by his count, more than 4,000 shows in the Opry's first 17 years, and he's back for his fourth Christmas show run since pursuing solo recording projects in 2003.
"I couldn't be more proud of the caliber of the cast and crew," Fretz said. "They created something that met a need and continues to do so in a very professional way."
Fretz looks forward to a "giant" adaptation of "Angels We Have Heard on High," as well as "The First Noel" with a crescendo and opening the second act as part of a Trans-Siberian Orchestra piece.
He said with the Opry, he grasped a level of "connection" with crowds.
"There's a big difference between performing in front of somebody and performing for somebody," Fretz said.
Opry officials also welcome back another popular rotating cast member this season, Moses Braxton, bringing his deep, stirring voice from Chicago.
Braxton said in the past decade, he often would spend seven months a year at the Opry, but he scaled back his performances in recent years to help care for his ailing wife.
With this Christmas gig, though, he's ready to sing again, such as in "Mary's Boy Child" and "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
"There's a lot of tradition in the show I used to be part of and will still be part of," Braxton said.
He called everyone at the Opry his family. Braxton said he feels his now-late wife Jan's presence every day and said, "I'm ready to share. I'm ready to give back what's been given to me."
Calvin Gilmore, owner of The Carolina Opry, looked back 25 years and ahead, planning to keep the theater's style pretty much the same, "but a little different and a little better, if that's possible."
"The longer you work with a group," he said, "the more second nature it becomes, and easier and better," saying this dream has exceeded any dreams and expectations.
Asked what's new for the Opry's Christmas, Gilmore fired back, "Everything and nothing."
He said people want to hear the yuletide classics they grew up loving, and some new things get sprinkled in.
"We do different arrangements," Gilmore said, "but you can't get too far from the classic arrangements."
He cited Andy Williams' "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" as two songs from which one cannot stray because of their universal meaning and memories with the populace.
Gilmore said an Opry staple remains "Beautiful Star of Bethlehem."
"It's basically the same as the first year we did it," he said.
With gratitude for second and third generations of audience members Gilmore and crew see in their seats, he wrapped up this Christmas using one word: a "homecoming."
"We have a ball doing it," Gilmore said.
'Christmas on Ice'
The Palace Theatre will do double duty for Christmas, with a 60-by-40-foot rink for "Christmas on Ice" in the main theater, and opening Nov. 17, "Nuncrackers - The 'Nunsense' Christmas Musical" in the King's Suite Showroom, home of the 2010 Broadway series.
Palace officials see the ice show as innovative, with whole-family appeal. Sabrina Israel, the Palace's marketing spokeswoman, said the cast comprises 10 professional skaters, 12 dancers and five singers, and they team up for about 30 songs, many in medleys.
Watching a full rehearsal last month in a warehouse in Conway, Richard Swenning, the on-ice director from Ice Maxx Productions in Charleston, said because of the tight confines compared with a standard hockey rink, only experienced professionals take part in these kind of shows customized for theaters and cruise ships. They "master it fast," too, he said.
To line up a jump in this show, Swenning said, "it's one crossover and boom, they've got to go."
Swenning, who turned pro 25 years ago by starting in "Ice Capades," said for this production, skaters do jumps taken off a blade edge on a curve, rather than leaps made by stretching a leg back to dig in a toe-pick from a straight-line pattern, which requires covering more ice.
"That's what makes this fun," he said.
The skaters come not only from across the United States and Canada, but also Russia, where Alexander Klimkin began his post-competitive career with "Moscow Ballet on Ice." Swenning said they range in age from 24 to 40.
Skyler Rodgers of California's Bay Area has performed around the world with "Disney on Ice" and "Holiday on Ice." During a break from practice, he and Danielle Logano, a figure skating director at her family's ice arena near Charlotte, N.C., watched the dancers work on their parts.
Logano said the biggest change from competitive skating comes down to feedback: "You're not being judged."
Logano said as soon "as the curtain goes up," she finds her groove and relaxes as she portrays the joyous mood of a season associated with a "Winter Wonderland," snowmen and ice skating.
Rodgers finds Christmas music "easily relatable" for skating, "with fun-filled numbers for the whole family."
'Dino's TV Christmas Show'
Cindra Marshall, who with her husband of 32 years, Hank, owns and produces "Dino's TV Variety Show," said this tribute-artist production named after Dean Martin "takes you back to easier times," with a focus on family and audience interaction.
"During the 1960s, many stars would have their own TV holiday specials," Marshall said, "and they'd invite their celebrity friends to stop in for a song or skit. That's what we re-create in our Christmas show."
Marshall is fond of annual Christmas TV shows by such stars as Andy Williams and Judy Garland. She said Dino's captures the coziness of an era when families would gather around the one television in the household.
"You really want a sense of warmth," she said. "The warm, fuzzy element."
Marshall said this fifth year of "Dino's" brought a move to the 2001 Entertainment Complex's Starlight Room, just north of Myrtle Beach, adding extra sparkle, as well as ambience and warmth, for this Christmas.
"This room has something magical," she said, noting the tables huddled around the stage "This transported me to a New York supper club from 20 years ago."
About 16 songs make up Dino's Christmas show, which undergoes frequent changes night by night. Every woman also plays dual or multiple roles.
"One lady might be a Gold Digger and a celebrity," Marshall said, referring to, for example, Doris Day, Marilyn Monroe or Phyllis Diller. "That's the fun part. We're like an acting comedy troupe."
A skit might entail Granny Clampett, from "The Beverly Hillbillies," crossing the road to see Dean Martin, setting up her variation of the Elmo & Patsy ditty, "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer."
Mindful of life in seemingly simpler times, Marshall said personnel added to the set a phone that rings with a bell. And who can forget the former idiosyncrasy of illuminating a Christmas tree: "When one goes out, they all go out"?
"Everything in our shows," Marshall said, "from the hairstyles to the jokes and songs - everything is true to that era."
She said that even if youth today have not been exposed to the personalities saluted in Dino's, the expansion of cable and satellite TV offers an easy outlet to escape back five decades.
"They can see a lot of these huge stars on TV Land," Marshall said.
The Marshalls, whose experience includes producing USO shows, cue the curtains for both their children.
Look for their daughter Rainee in the show, and their son, Travis, directing the lights.
"We're kind of like a circus family," Marshall said.
Dixie Stampede
Christmas will usher in the final corral of Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede Dinner Attraction equestrian extravaganza after 18 years in Myrtle Beach.
"The Christmas show has become a family tradition," said Pete Owens, company spokesman for Dollywood based in Tennessee. "It's really an opportunity for families to celebrate the long run of the show."
Owens also called this last lap for Dixie's dinner attraction - which will continue year round at the company's sites in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., and Branson, Mo. - "a neat way" before turning the page to an $11 million renovation of the theater into Pirate's Voyage Fun, Feast & Adventure. Plans call for reopening in June - details at 800-433-4401 or www.piratesvoyage.com - and its own Christmas show next year.
"It is a huge investment in that building," Owens said. "Really, it's because of the relationship we've had in Myrtle Beach with our customers, a lot of repeat business to the Myrtle Beach market every year."
He said company officials have researched the pirate theme heavily and expect Pirate's Voyage to provide "a positive addition to the entertainment mix" across the Strand.
Thinking about these final two months, Owens said the show will offer some new surprises to add to people's yuletide memories.
Owen said the live Nativity with its live animals and holy family, and a routine in which toys come to life are a must-see this year.
Patrons who stroll by the stables will see the wreaths lining the fence, along the west side of the building. Many of the 32 horses, which include four Belgian drafts, and a Friesian upon whom the show host rides, will be relocated to the other two Dixie Stampede shows, Owens said, and in some cases, riders might have a chance to buy their mounts and continue their respective partnership in the saddle.
"Our riders and handlers have become attached to them," Owens said.
He gave the well-trained animals credit for their own hard work.
"They're the stars of the shows, and they're treated as such," he said.
Alabama Theatre
"It's been Christmastime a long time," said Bob Wood, president of the Alabama Theatre in North Myrtle Beach.
Rehearsals began in late August for the crew of 40 cast members and off-stage personnel to prepare for this 18th year of Christmas shows at Alabama.
Wood said the production undergoes alterations every year, such as swapping songs and placement, but arrangements don't vary that much.
"With Christmas music, there's only so much you can change," he said. "Look around at your artists. They usually have only one Christmas album. There's a finite number of Christmas songs. ...
"The real traditional stuff never gets old for people. They hear it only at one time of the year. That's what gives Christmas that warm and fuzzy feeling."
Look for some parts in Alabama's celebration to take a memorable and different path, though.
"You take a song like 'Jingle Bells' and arrange it differently to where it's a new experience," Wood said. "We do that with several songs."
His favorite Alabama standard, "Mary Did You Know," never fails to give him chills.
"Denise Tichenor Collins does an incredible job on that," said Woods, noting her return to the show after two Christmases away. "It's just one of the songs I've got to hear every year."
One aspect of the show that never repeats itself year after year, Wood said with a laugh, is Grant Turner's "Ricky Mokel" skits.
"The comedy changes quite a bit," Wood said. "He just impresses; it comes off just like that."
Wood said the native Georgian reflects the breadth of talent from across the country that teams up to perform every Christmas and in Alabama's "One: The Show" for the rest of the year.
Woods has observed that many families vacation on the Grand Strand at year's end.
"Christmas has really become a tourist favorite now," he said. "A lot of folks now come to Myrtle Beach to celebrate Christmas. ..."
"When we first opened up, I was amazed at the number of people staying here between Christmas and New Year's."
With Alabama approaching the close of its second decade on the Strand come 2013, amid a stocking full of Christmas shows every year, Wood said the public appreciates the class of entertainment.
"We are very lucky to have the quality of shows we have in this town," he said.
Contact STEVE PALISIN at 444-1764.
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