Dehner Franks holiday show is all about variety

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, December 14, 2006

Dehner Franks is among the very talented pianists and versatile musicians around today. If you missed his performance with the Everett Symphony earlier this year, you’ll have two more chances to catch up with the cool cat this weekend.

Franks is the headline performer Saturday at “The Sixth Annual Christmas Spectacular: The Gift of Music,” at the Everett Theatre on Colby Avenue. The show’s organizers are boasting that this is all about variety and the show includes jazz, swing, comedy, a children’s choir and a salute to the military. The show benefits the Volunteers of America.

On Sunday, Franks returns to the theater for a rare, requests-only performance. Those first to arrive to this matinee show will get an intimate treat of sitting on stage as Franks plays.

Both performances will showcase Franks’ versatility. He knows about 2,000 songs and, among his repertoire, has written boogie-woogie, country, jazz and ballads.

“He’s a very impressive guy and a wonderful human being,” said Sanford Wright, the show’s producer.

Franks wrote all 23 songs for the Saturday show. One song, “Imagine,” Franks wrote especially for Everett’s Imagine Children’s Museum. The song talks about why parents should take their children there, Wright said.

The Imagine Children’s Museum has started a choir called the Imagine Childen’s Museum Singers, a group of about 25 kids who are the children of museum members. The choir is performing Saturday and will sing a Franks’ tune called “Look into the Rainbow.”

Other Saturday selections will include the moving piece called “These Things Remind Me of You,” dedicated to military spouses with mates overseas; “Help Me to Stand,” about a person who is trying to get back on track through spirituality; and “Fighting to Stay Alive,” about not just thinking of our own skin in times of trouble, Wright said.

Don’t get the wrong idea though. There’s lots of fun stuff too.

There’s a Franks’ number called “This is Who I Am,” a toe-tapping tune about the devil’s lure of jazz, and another called “Ain’t Love Grand,” a funny, country-western song about the occasional craziness of marriage.

Also on the lighter side, the show will feature vocalist Nadine Shanti singing “Santa Swing,” with lyrics that tell the dancer the next step. The dance part will be provided by The Dorothy Jayne Dancers.

Singer Ksenia Popova, who won the Washington State Vocal Performance Award for all high school students in the state, will sing “What is the Cost of Freedom,” flanked on either side by the Color Guard of the USS Abraham Lincoln, Wright said.

Comic relief will be supplied by master of ceremonies Brian Tracey of King-5 Evening Magazine. Throughout the show, Tracey will get support from “Duck Force Security,” all Village Theatre veterans who try, not very hard, to keep control on stage.

For the $5 admission price, the audience will have no idea of how much they will truly get for that kind of money. “But it’s just amazing,” said Debbie Jordan, manager of communications and volunteer programs for VOA.

“This is as variety as it gets,” Jordan said. “To call it a Christmas spectacular is absolutely right. It’s inspired and inspiring. You just walk away believing the world is a better place. And Dehner has such a gift.”

Arts writer Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424 or goffredo@heraldnet.com.

Elizabeth Armstrong / The Herald

Abigail Doran (left) and Evelyn Doran, members of the Imagine Museum Children’s Choir, move a sign into position for a recent rehearsal. The choir performs Saturday at the Christmas Spectacular.

Victor Benedetti and Nadine Shanti perform at last year’s Christmas Spectacular.

Dehner Franks again headlines the Christmas Spectacular.