There’s always something ominous about the sight of a keyboard covered in tinsel.
Written and performed by indie pop trio GrooveLily, this mini festive musical introduces itself as a ‘non-spectacular non-extravaganza’, and makes a further stab at spirited non-conformity by scripting plenty of meta-theatrical joshing. But for all the archness, it’s as predictably plotted, lazily written and gratingly sentimental as less independent Christmas shows to which it seeks to provide an alternative.
On New Year’s Eve, a freshly dumped guy blows out his friends to stay home and read Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Match Girl’. Appalled by its fatalism, he regrets his earlier treatment of a young woman selling – wait for it – lights to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder.
The best refrain is ‘Everything is red and green and I’m feeling blue’, the acting gets stuck on ‘wrinkle-nosed wonder’ and pretty soon that shallow night out with chums isn’t seeming like such a bad option.