Families in the 109 don’t have to wait until they put up Christmas decorations or fight Black Friday sales crowds – they can jump-start their Christmas spirit at a pre-Thanksgiving holiday revue at TCU.

TCU Theater is gearing up to produce some Christmas magic with a chance of snow in the forecast.

Harry Parker, chair of the theater department, and Alan Shorter, theatre professor, wrote and produced We Need a Little Christmas. Parker said the musical was inspired by the movie White Christmas and the 1950's era.

The musical is set in an elegant 1950’s supper club. Patrons of these clubs would dress up to sit and drink cocktails.

“We don’t have any cocktails and we don’t expect the audience to be dressed up,” Parker said.

Moreover, the musical is a revue that includes a collection of 45 songs. The songs vary from romantic to serious to comedic Christmas songs.

“We have approached each song as a one-act play,” Parker said. “Each song has its own atmosphere, its own story to tell and journey for the characters involved.”

We Need a Little Christmas will feature 10 singers and eight dancers who are TCU theatre students. There are no consistent characters in the revue.

“There is no dialogue in the show,” Parker said. “There is nothing but singing in this show.”

Caroline Carden, senior musical theatre major, said since there are no characters in the musical the actors had to come up with their own.

“Harry has challenged us to come up with a different character for each of the songs,” Carden said.

Junior theatre production major and Stage Manager Taylor Bracey said the actresses are dressed in 1950’s formal evening ball gowns.

“I love [the dresses], they have built almost all of them,” Carden said. “The five singers get beautiful dresses that were made just for us.”

Parker said students are given an opportunity to have a moment where they will do something fun and special.

“Me and Alan put together this show about six years ago,” Parker said. “We wanted an opportunity to show off the work of our students.”

Parker said the revue provides the theatre students with great professional training.

“Theaters all over the country do these kinds of shows all the time,” Parker said. “Our students are creating holiday entertainment that audiences will like.”

The musical will generate an evening of entrainment based around the holiday season. There will be a variety of solos, duets and ensemble numbers, Parker said.

“It’s terribly entertaining,” Parker said. “It’s about holiday fun it not a religious show.”

We Need a Little Christmas opened Nov. 18 and will run through Nov. 23.

Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20-22 and at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 22-23. The musical is in the Marlene and Spencer Hays Theatre. General admission tickets are $15 and  $10 for TCU students, faculty and staff.

This article appeared previously on tcu360.com. TCU 360 is an official, student-produced product of the Schieffer School of Journalism at Texas Christian University