The holiday season is upon us! It’s time for eggnog (gross!), decorations, and holiday-themed live entertainment programs! One of the first programs on the docket is A Jolly Holiday with the Pops, a joint effort, led by the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, integrated with Cleveland Ballet, the Pops Chorus, and special guests!
As is tradition, the shows will occur at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace Theater (2:00 PM & 7:00 PM). CleveRock caught up with Cleveland Pops Orchestra director Carl Topilow and his wife, Cleveland Pops’ CEO Shirley Morgenstern, to fill us in on all the details about the event!
CLEVEROCK: Fill us in on the program! What can folks who are coming to A Jolly Holiday with the Pops expect at the event?
Carl: We love doing the holiday concerts, and it’s a tradition, and I reinvent Santa Claus every year with new stuff, old stuff; in between stuff. I love seeing the people come into the Palace Theater and just be there to kick off the holiday season. We traditionally have done it on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and as I say, it’s a way to start the holiday season, and everyone seems to enjoy what we do. So we’re back for more.
The program itself, I think, is pretty exciting because we’ve got the orchestra, the Pops Chorus, the Cleveland Ballet dancing, Santa; David Pogue from CBS Sunday Morning is doing narration and conducting a piece that he did. We have a Chanukkah piece. We have four team members of the Cleveland Pops Youth Orchestra doing two pieces side by side; a sing-along. So there’s a lot going on, and it’s always exciting for us to produce a program which has variety to it, and hopefully we’ll touch a lot of people.
Shirley: I will tell you that we have a lot of things going on, and we’re downtown at Playhouse Square. We have a wonderful partnership with Playhouse Square, where we’re doing two concerts this year, one at 2:00 PM and one at 7:00 PM because we’ve been sold out for the last three or four years. And so we’ve added it with Playhouse Square as partners, and we have things like Santa Claus and community shelters coming down with dogs and cats. We’ve been doing that for 22 years, so it’s quite something, and we’re really excited.
We’ve been doing a concert down there for about 26 years. I think for 25 years, we’ve been hosting the animal shelters, and a lot of animals have been adopted through that. People look forward to it every single year and wait to adopt an animal until they come to our concert a lot of times. And the other things being out in the community, we have a scholarship program that we do yearly with a cash prize for kids, and that means a lot to us.
And then most importantly too, is we work with the city Mission down at this particular concert, we work with them and our patrons, musicians, chorus, and our staff, we all bring toys down for the kids. And our Santa Claus happens to be the director of the City Mission, I think for 25 years. He’s a wonderful human being. He makes the best Santa Claus, and we’ve been working together for about, oh, maybe it’s been about ten years now. He’s just wonderful, and we’ve been doing that for even longer. But then he loves to be Santa Claus.
CLEVEROCK: So many people are involved in this production, from the Pops Orchestra, the Cleveland Ballet, the Pops Chorus, guest performers, and even Santa Claus! What are the challenges in presenting this show?
Carl: The challenge is presenting something new every year instead of a few pieces getting recycled, like our Sleigh Ride or the sing-along or whatever. But just getting new stuff together is the biggest challenge. And getting it all rehearsed in the amount of time you’re given, that’s always a challenge. But I am used to working quickly and efficiently and getting all the music ready, getting all the moving parts to show up at the right time and get the rises in place and the microphones and the chorus. It’s a lot, but it’s all part of the coordination and that’s what makes it work.
Shirley: We are very organized and have a great staff. We’re very fortunate that we have a staff, and everybody takes responsibility. Our musicians are phenomenal, and they always show up. They’re always on time, and the chorus loves singing. So, it is a collaborative effort.
CLEVEROCK: You mentioned David Pogue, a Shaker Heights native, will be a part of the show! That’s so exciting. How will he be involved in the performance?
Carl: He’s put together a medley like all of the Christmas carols sometimes played simultaneously, a nine-minute piece that has just about every Christmas carol you’ve ever heard, sort of a mashup of Christmas carols. And then, he’s doing the narration for The Night Before Christmas poem. David has a very strong musical background, having worked on Broadway, actually conducting shows, and worked with Steven Sondheim. He is an experienced conductor, and he’ll be conducting his piece. And as I say, being an actor for The Night Before Christmas, which is in a stunning version by Randol Bass in which the narration and the music have just come together so beautifully.
CLEVEROCK: Programs like this often play a crucial role in helping people get into the holiday spirit. What does it mean to you to be able to help spread some holiday cheer?
Carl: By presenting what you might call a user-friendly program and something for everybody to identify with, and they can all participate in the sing-along and just feel good about music and sort of forget everything for a couple of hours and just enjoy their experience with us. That means a lot to us. I wrote a new arrangement also for Chanukkah, which I play on the clarinet, so this will be the maiden voyage. It’s the premier performance of my Chanukkah piece.
Shirley: By providing something that’s affordable for everybody, and also, I’m a big Christmas person, but you get busy with your daily life, with work, et cetera, I look forward to it every year because it really sets me going if you have Thanksgiving and then everybody, all the family gets together, and then they all go home and then, oh God, now I got a Christmas shop. But it’s not like that. When you come down to something like this, you know that people’s spirits are going to be uplifted, and it’s a community thing, and it’s just very special.
CLEVEROCK: With tickets starting at only $35, this program is one of the more friendly price points for folks who want to attend a holiday event. How important is it to you that entire families can attend without breaking the bank?
Shirley: When we first started the orchestra, Carl and I founded it together, and we didn’t want to go like everybody else, go to pricing and change pricing every year. We rarely change our prices. I think we went up a little bit last year, but we rarely change our prices, especially the holiday concert. We wanted it to be something that everybody could attend. And fortunately, the Palace Theater is a big hall that seats about 2,800 people. So we have some wiggle room there, and it’s a special concert for us in that way, too, because we know that the whole community can come.
CLEVEROCK: Finally, why should Cleveland area residents come out to Playhouse Square on December 1 to check out A Jolly Holiday with the Pops?
Shirley: Well, they should come out to see a Jolly Holiday with Cleveland Pops Orchestra because they will have no worries for those two hours. Music is a universal language. They will be uplifted, they will have fun, and they will be able to be part of the community. They can bring a toy. They’ll know that something was given back to the community. And, if they decide that they want a pet, they can go up and adopt a pet and know that they’ve given a pet at home, and they can just come back, and then for that two hours, they can sit back and enjoy music, which again, I will state is a universal language and just uplifts your spirits.
Carl: I would say there’s something for everybody. There’s a lot of variety. It’s very lively, and it’s just a chance to hear great music and a beautiful setting.
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