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Christmas with Tommy Makem

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

The aging singer and musician, who?s probably still best known for his celebrated association with the Clancy Brothers, a partnership which ended some thirty-four years ago, has cobbled together an 80-minute yuletide performance which, when it plays its final show on Sunday afternoon, December 28, will have been done in the Rep?s comfortable home on 22nd Street a total of just 13 times.
Makem?s show is undemanding in the extreme, and is composed of material so familiar that the singer risks asking the audience to sing along with him starting with the very first number, ?We Wish You a Merry Christmas.?
His audience seems as comfortable with Makem as he clearly is with the music, ranging from ?Adeste Fideles,? rendered in English as well as Latin, to a particularly heartfelt version of ?Scarlet Ribbons,? and encompassing such beloved chestnuts as ?Angels We Have Heard on High? and ?Silent Night? along the way.
When Makem raises his arms as a signal that his hearers are invited to sing along with him, the audience for the most part happily obliges him, although not always with what might be termed outright conviction. Not all feathered creatures, it seems clear, are singing birds of the first order.
The singer is perhaps most effective when he takes a chance on material with which the audience is less than wholly familiar.
In ?Christmas with Tommy Makem,? there are a few unexpected joys, including the poet Patrick Kavanaugh?s evocative ?A Christmas Childhood? and a trio of relatively less timeworn carols including ?The Gift of the Tree,? ?Sing We the Virgin Mary? and ?The Wren Song,? this last-named accompanied by an enlightening account of the poignant role once played by one of the world?s tiniest avian creatures in religiously-oriented holiday celebrations.
Makem comes by his sense of musical exploration naturally enough, since his mother was the celebrated Co. Armagh folklorist and song collector, Sara Makem.
It?s a pity then, that ?Christmas with Tommy Makem? reflects so little of the artist?s delvings into the rarities of holiday music. Much as it apparently pleases his basically undemanding audience, who seem abundantly grateful for what they?ve been given, the show might have benefited from the application of a modicum of genuine curiosity and authentic scholarship.
Never a particularly charismatic personality nor an especially powerful singer, Makem has built much of his enduring success on his not inconsiderable skill and musicianship on the banjo and the tin whistle, on both of which he excels.
?Christmas with Tommy Makem,? to be sure, is a painlessly digestible holiday confection, and it might easily have been allowed to run another twenty minutes or so. Makem is supported by his son, Rory, an able singer and guitarist who, with his brothers Shane and Conor, has built something of a reputation performing as The Makem Brothers.
His father?s current show might well have gained strength and interest from a bit more active participation on the part of the affably appealing Rory Makem, although, by report, he didn?t desire an expanded part in the endeavor.
It?s relatively well-known that when Tommy Makem left his hometown of Cady, in South Armagh, his intention was to become an actor, a goal he set aside when his considerable musical abilities began to indicate a possible career as a concert artist.
The relentlessly easygoing performer?s interest in acting comes into focus in the final twenty-five minutes or so of ?Christmas with Tommy Makem,? when he approaches a centerstage chair on which, from the outset, a colorfully bound copy of Dylan Thomas imperishable yuletide classic, ?A Child?s Christmas in Wales,? had rested, its title clearly visible to the audience. Its presence promises, perhaps, the delights inherently a part of being reminded of the joy and eloquence with which the work of the short-lived Welsh poet was so intensely infused.
The Irish Repertory Theatre has made something of an enduring glory of ?A Child?s Christmas in Wales,? performed by a cluster of actors supported by a gifted musician.
This year?s recital of the beloved work is understandably a creature of simpler plumage, delivered in one gifted but not towering voice, backed by some rather neutral-sounding guitar strumming on the part of the speaker?s son.
In a sense, merely approaching Thomas? modern classic is a foolhardy gesture, since the author?s richly plumy-throated reading of the work is, for many of us, as unforgettable as it is emphatic.
Under the circumstances Makem?s version of Thomas? evocation of a pre-adolescent recollection of a snowy Welsh family celebration is rewarding, once you banish Thomas? resounding voice from our memory and your eardrums.
Despite a certain lack of genuine ambition on the part of its creator, ?Christmas with Tommy Makem? is worth a look-in, perhaps particularly if you have relatives in from out of town, especially kinfolk with children in need of placid entertainment.

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