December 16th, 2022: Ridgefield, Connecticut.
The Ridgefield Playhouse is a very quaint theater. It has all the glamour of an old-school-style theater but with some modern amenities. The energy of the crowd was nice; it was a mix of younger and some older people. I was surprised there weren’t more people wearing Glee or Starkid attire. Regardless of the strange vibe, Darren did an amazing job.
He opened with the holiday classic “(Everybody’s Waitin’ For) The Man With The Bag” to really get into the holiday spirit. As he continued to sing some holiday classics he talked to the audience. He told stories about the writers of the songs and why he chose them for his holiday albums; he also discussed how this album was really an expression of him. It was very nice and made the entire show more personable.
At one point he asked where people were from and this led to him singing a song in french! It was pretty awesome. He, of course, finished with “Christmas Dance” as an encore after he joked with the audience. It was a really fun time and I really enjoyed myself.
December 20th, 2022: Boston, MA
The final stop of Darren’s ‘crissmas tour’ was the wonderful Wilbur Theater was full of energy. To be honest I enjoyed this performance much better than Ridgefield. I say that because the energy in the theater was more electric and excitable. I felt as though that Darren was really feeding off of that.
Set wise the performance was similar in outline. One thing that was enjoyable was that he singled out one person who was ‘dragged to the show’ and periodically checked in with the said person. It brought some humor to the performance and helped keep the energy up.
Some of the stories he told were the same as in Ridgefield; like how the writer of ‘I want a hippopotamus for Christmas was an eleven-year-old girl. He also sang in french after asking where people were from like he did in the other show. One thing that was cool was how someone brought one of his backup singers flowers; so that segued way into his intro to the band which was nice.
He closed the show again with ‘Christmas Dance’ as his encore. This time everyone got up and danced. It was very cool to see the entire theater (filled with a sold-out crowd) up and dancing. Prior to closing the show he asks people what holiday songs they like to hear that weren’t on his album. He incorporates them into his live performance of ‘Christmas Dance!’
In both shows, people said ‘Last Christmas’ but what was awesome with this show is someone said ‘Extraordinary Merry Christmas’ and Darren looked up and said ‘that hits deep.’ It was sweet. Turns out the person who said that lives a few streets away from me (small world)!
Honestly, this year really didn’t have a lot of Holiday feelings going on for me. I was very complacent and just in the holiday mood. But this show really popped me out of that funk. If you ever get a chance to see Darren Criss live I highly recommend it. He puts on an incredible show.