TOM TITUS:Composer’s gift is ‘A Song for Christmas’

Holiday musicals are busting out all over at this time of year, but the show being offered next week by the Huntington Beach Playhouse is somewhat unique: a homegrown Christmas show.

Composer Erik Przytulski created his “A Song for Christmas” over a period of 12 years from a holiday songfest to a complete musical.

“What had started as a simple Christmas gift of a song to friends and family eventually became an annual concert,” says Przytulski, who also has had a musical hand in the playhouse’s world premieres of “The Golden Dream” and “Surf City USA.”

“Now, after 12 years since my first holiday composition and six live performances, ‘A Song for Christmas’ takes my anthology of original Christmas songs and threads them together for a fully staged musical.”

Directing “A Song for Christmas” is Stephen Reifenstein, who also staged “The Golden Dream” two seasons ago and is currently involved as an actor in another original, “A Christmas Show,” at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse.

“I am so proud to be working on a production of this sort,” Reifenstein said. “To create new music and art is a joy and the reason I have been in the theater for almost 20 years. It’s so great to come to rehearsal and make a brand new song or scene come to life.”

The Huntington Beach Playhouse bills the project as “a show for the kid in all of us, a unique and original family musical that celebrates the spirit of the season with songs that touch the heart and rock the soul.”

The story, according to Przytulski, “follows a man from childhood to adulthood and shows how the music of the season has shaped and influenced his life. The music is upbeat and”will have you up and dancing in the aisles,” the composer promises.

“A Song for Christmas,” which also features choreography by Edward Bangasser, is booked into the theater at the Central Library Theater, 7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach, for just two performances, Dec. 21 and 22, at 8 p.m.

A gala reception will be held following each performance, and ticket reservations may be obtained by contacting the playhouse at (714) 375-0696.