House Lights

A Christmas Memory is the 2010 musicalization of a Truman Capote short story from 1956. Midwest hokum in concept and execution. “Christmas Is…” reeks of every 1970s greeting card there ever was. The waxy nostalgia of “Christmas Through the Years” is overwhelmed with xylophone noise. “Just Once” sounds like an early rehearsal in a poorly funded school. Apparently the absent father (dead) has made a negative impression, but he whines from beyond the grave in “So Many Times.” Overcoming poverty in the Great Depression is a swell background, but this show requires being old enough to remember that time, as well as having little taste. Rather than suffering the “Finale,” stick to church services.