As anyone who caught the recent touring production of Jersey Boys that landed at the Granada in November can attest, the impact of hearing four great singers locked into a chord has not diminished in the years since such great groups as the Four Seasons and the Beach Boys were in their heyday. If anything, in this era of auto-tuned pop rap and EDM, the excitement that only the blending of live human voices can provide has become rarer and more urgent. Under the Streetlamp is a group composed of Eric Gutman, Brandon Wardell, Christopher Kale Jones, and Shonn Wiley; they are great singers and, among many other things, former cast members of Jersey Boys and Good Vibrations, the Beach Boys musical. The group had a popular PBS special in 2012 that has gone on to become a staple of pledge drives all over the country, and they are bringing their show Hip to the Holidays to the Granada on Saturday, December 9. What makes them special is that, in addition to singing excellent arrangements with a crack live band, they dance like Broadway stars. I spoke with Brandon Wardell recently by phone from Oklahoma, where the group was preparing to take the stage at the Grand Casino Hotel & Resort in Shawnee.
Will the show be all holiday material, or will you mix in other songs? It will be half and half. We like to keep the real crowd-pleasers in the mix.
I see you do one of my favorite Christmas carols — “Santa Claus Is Back in Town.” Yes, we do. That’s a dirty song.