Firehall Arts Centre to December 28, 2025
Tickets from $30 at 604-689-0926 or www.firehallartscentre.ca
Posted December 19, 2025
Baking not finished? Tree not up? Stressed to the max? Give yourself a well-deserved break and check out A Very Merry Motown: Songs and Stories for All Ages with Krystle Dos Santos and Friends. Joined by vocalist Stephen Scaccia, Dos Santos kicks the show off with an upbeat “Merry Christmas, Baby” and right away toes start tapping, heads start bobbing, grins start spreading across our faces. Your to-do list fades away.
And what’s not to love, beginning with a bright and festive set: a Christmas tree and a stage-full of red poinsettias. Dos Santos comes on in a sparkly, body-hugging red dress, white satin elbow-length gloves and a fluffy white fur stole. But it’s when she flashes her huge smile that the Firehall really lights up and the fun begins.
Motown is a record label founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in 1959 in Detroit, the automotive centre of the USA. The word is a mashup of ‘motor’, and ‘town’ and it has become the nickname for Detroit. Motown Sound is synonymous with a style of music that blends soul, R & B, gospel and pop. But it goes beyond that: from Wikipedia: “Motown [music] played a vital role in the racial integration of popular music as an African American-owned label that achieved crossover success with white audiences.”
In the 60s and 70s I was so into the Beatles, Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd, Cat Stevens, Jethro Tull and the like that I scarcely noticed Motown but it was impossible not to be aware of Motown’s big stars: The Supremes, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie and others. And so, A Very Merry Motown was like a Christmas primer on Motown for me and I loved it.
Dos Santos and Scaccia are backed by the elegantly suited and candy-cane scarved Jon Holisko on drums, Cole Tinney (keyboards), Gavin Youngash (guitar/bass) and Dominic Conway (saxophone). Standing in for Scaccia on December 19 and 20 – matinee and evening – is Josh Wyper.
The show is framed with a reworded-for-the-occasion The Night Before Christmas with Dos Santos, donning bright red spectacles without which, she says laughingly, she can’t see a thing. And that is part of the show’s real charm: it feels personal, intimate, especially when Scaccia talks about growing up in Burnaby, going to a Catholic school and his favourite teacher there who, after being begged by all the kids at assembly, would sing “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”. Dos Santos talks about the “shy little Edmonton girl” she was. She made a big pitch for “gifting and thrifting”, confessing that the outrageously gorgeous red ruffled gown and shoes she comes out in in the second half of the program, were gifted to her by a friend and that the only thing she actually bought for the evening was the little red leather jacket. She’s a thrifter and proud of it.
I hesitate to use the word “cute” but, damn, Scaccia and Dos Santos are cute together; the two of them having so much fun together is infectious. He quips she’s a “Hot Mrs. Claus” and she replies, “That’s what we were going for.” Her smile is enough to light up the whole town and you feel the warm feeling and mutual respect they have for each other.
Backed by huge photo projections of Motown stars, the duo sings its way through about a dozen favourites including “Baby It’s Cold Outside”, ‘Let It Snow”, “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” and a gorgeous song I’d never heard before, “Pretty Purple Snowflakes”. Lots of variety, beautiful harmonies. Great licks by each of the band members.
In her programme notes, Dos Santos writes, “May this music lift your spirits and carry you into a joyful, soulful holiday season.” And that it will. Forget for a moment decking the halls and get down to the Firehall. A Very Merry Motown is Dos Santos, Scaccia and the Firehall’s gift to us all.