POP MUSIC REVIEW : A Warmth of Holiday Spirit at ‘Colors’

Holiday cheer, pop hits and smooth showmanship produced an evening of feel-good entertainment Wednesday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, as the “Colors of Christmas” concert came to the stylish venue’s in-the-round stage for a second season.

Peabo Bryson, Roberta Flack, James Ingram and Sheena Easton--each performing separately and in a variety of duets in the first of three sold-out nights--were indeed colorful. But Christmas classics were given short shrift, with more time spent on the performers’ individual greatest hits.

Flack paid tribute to baby Jesus with a tender, hushed “What Child Is This?,” but James Bond also got his due with Easton’s hyper-intense “For Your Eyes Only.” Ingram also made an odd choice of material in performing his hit “I Don’t Have the Heart,” a song pretty short on glad tidings. And the evening’s showstopper wasn’t any Santa tune, but “A Whole New World” from Disney’s “Aladdin,” sung by Bryson and Easton.

The performers were backed with serviceable, workmanlike arrangements from a small orchestra. They were better served by the stirring support of the Crenshaw High School Choir on several tunes.

The concert closed with all four headliners on stage, tearing into a rousing gospel number that brought the house to its feet. “The Colors of Christmas” offered a bill heavy with chart-topping singles rather than tree-topping carols, but the warmth of spirit from the stage and in the crowd made it hard for even dedicated Scrooges to hold on to much humbug.