Who: Everett Bradley and special guests
What: Holidelic funk revue
Where: Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher St.
When: December 9-31, $31-$101 (use code TINSEL50 for half-price tickets)
Why: “Holidelic was born out of my obsession with Parliament Funkadelic. I grew up on that music and I love it, and I also like Christmas,” Everett Bradley says in a promotional video about his popular Christmas jam, returning this month to the Lucille Lortel Theatre. “I’m like a Christmas geek.” In his guise as Papadelic, the Father Christmas of Funk, the Grammy-nominated percussionist is joined by special guests, everyone in outrageous holiday finery as they blast through groovy Christmas songs, many from his 2002 album, Toy, which features such tunes as “Christmas Is Kickin’ In,” “Dirty Snow,” “Funky Santa,” “Say Cheese,” and “I’m Coming Home,” and 2017’s Holidelic: Rebooty, which includes “DysFunktional,” “Sugar Rump Fairies,” “Get on Down That Chimney,” “’Twas the Night Before the Funk,” and “Fro Ho Ho.”
Bradley began writing Christmas songs after 9/11 as a way to provide healing to a grieving nation. There will be twelve performances between December 9 and 31, and the Lortel has teamed up with local restaurants Cowgirl, Northfork, and Red Paper Clip for special preshow dinners and happy hours. Holidelic is part of the Lortel’s “Tinsel” global holiday festival, which kicks off December 6 and features such other shows as Jared Grimes’s Christmas in the Lab, Pastorela: A Very Merry Immigrant Christmas, Jaime Lozano & the Familia’s Canciones para Navidad, Ilene Reid’s the Sounds Around the House, Telly Leung’s Tossing Tinsel with Telly, and Latrice Royale’s Why It Gotta Be White Christmas?!