BWW Exclusive: All We Want For Christmas Is The Broadway Princess Holiday Party

Since its inception in 2015, the Broadway Princess Party concert series has gone from a cute one-time show to a fan favorite at Feinstein's/54 Below to a nationwide tour complete with a full-fledged merchandise line. Now, they're expanding the brand once again, with the Broadway Princess Holiday Party, touring through California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and New York this December. It's a new twist on a concept that's won hearts for its sometimes-winking but genuine and heartfelt embrace of nostalgia, optimism, and girl power.

The idea for the holiday party has been cooking for a while, according to music director and co-founder Benjamin Rauhala.

"It was one of Laura [Osnes] and I's first ideas when we were planning the first concert, way back in August 2015. We thought, 'we should do another concert but over Christmas, like a holiday show, and we can sing princess holiday songs and what would that even mean?' And we went to look at dates and December was already all booked up, so we just moved on and did one in March," Rauhala explains.

At the time, they had no idea that the concerts would become a bona fide phenomenon or that they would get the chance to do this again. For 2018, after the success of the touring concert earlier in the year, the team revisited the idea and decided to tackle it on tour rather than as a sit-down concert.

Like the rest of the tour, the holiday party features three longtime leading ladies: Laura Osnes, Courtney Reed, and Susan Egan, along with their "Fairy Godfairy" Rauhala. For some stops, their usual touring Prince Adam J. Levy will be with them, but for the stops that conflict with his commitment to Waitress, a whole new set of princes will be joining the ladies. YouTube sensation Nick Pitera will take the San Jose stop, Lyle Colby Mackston is slotted for Oxnard, Irvine, and Brea, and Brock Harris joins the tour for Oxnard. The Tempe and Pittsburgh stops feature rising talent: first-time princes Cade Trotter and Daniel Gerard Bittner, respectively. And when the tour returns to New York at Sony Hall, Liz Callaway, Corey Cott, and Stephanie Styles will make their royal returns.

If that's not enough, all of the cities will also feature local girls as the winners of the "Unleash Your Inner Princess" contests. Each city on the tour has offered the opportunity for young women to submit videos for the chance to perform onstage and join the ever-expanding Princess Party family.

According to Rauhala, the special holiday concerts will be a combination of the most iconic numbers from the original-flavor Princess Parties, plus some extra holiday magic.

"It is the Broadway Princess Holiday Party, so we want to make sure we get enough 'princess' in there!" Rauhala laughs. "The girls have to do their signature songs. But then we look at the catalog of songs. There's the Beauty and the Beast Christmas song, so we have to do that!" The set list is also set to include a signature medley - this time of Christmas songs - and a slew of holiday songs, all with their iconic sprinkling of magic and tongue-in-cheek humor.

"What if Cinderella sang a Christmas song - what would that be in the modern canon? What Christmas songs do we love? It's been fun getting to take these three voices that are inherently princess-y and set Christmas songs on them... each girl has her own style. So Laura gets the heartfelt, inspirational Christmas moments, Courtney's going to give you a little bit of Mariah Carey, maybe some Christina Aguilera, and Susan is going to give you that classic Broadway sound."

One of the big treats that fans can expect to hear? A long-gestating trio version of Frozen's "In Summer." Rauhala says that the arrangement has been in the works for a while, but they've held it to debut in their special winter/holiday-themed concert.

Moving forward, the BPP brand might start looking a little bit different. Ever since the tour launched, the cast has been the same: Osnes, Reed, and Egan, with Rauhala at the piano. But the original crew is starting to tackle new projects: Rauhala, for instance, will be the associate music director for Atlantic Theatre Company's The Secret Life of Bees this spring. Changes might be on the horizon under the tiaras too: a new trio of "princesses" have begun rehearsing so that a total of six ladies can mix-and-match depending on schedules in the future.

At its heart, though, the mission remains the same: to celebrate the joy of music and the powerful positivity of the princess genre. It's why these concerts continue to thrive, three years after their debut. You can join the party on Dec. 6 in San Jose, Dec. 7 in Oxnard, Dec. 8 in Irvine, Dec. 9 in Brea, Dec. 11 in Tempe, Dec. 14 in Pittsburgh, and Dec. 17 at Sony Hall in New York City!

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