Crooner Ricki Derek relocates his “A Merry Little Christmas Show” to Granada Theater (provided photo)
For seven years Lakewood crooner Ricki Derek has performed his popular “A Merry Little Christmas Show” at Lakewood Theater.
Well, that obviously can’t happen this year, but Derek isn’t going to let Lakewood Theater’s shaky future dampen his Christmas spirit. As he puts it, “The show must go on!” — just elsewhere.
Lucky for us it isn’t going far. Derek has worked out the details with Granada Theater to perform the show there on Dec. 12, and Granada is already hawking tickets on the front page of its website.
Although the venue is different, Derek says the show will be largely the same, with the same songs and gimmicks, that neighbors have grown to love.
“The show is inspired by the Frank Sinatra/Bing Crosby kind of Christmas shows,” Derek explains. “They’d sing these great songs and then have a special guest, and my family used to gather around the TV for it. That was a thing. So I try to capture that and do that as a stage version.”
Derek’s special guests include Nick Gibbons of Adult Swim, Opera Scott, Rosanna Eckert, Frosty, and of course Santa Claus.
“I just love doing it,” he says. “It’s my favorite thing to do because of the arrangements and because it’s my show. I don’t have parameters. It’s just going with my gut about what people are looking for this time of year — fun and less stress.”
This is actually Derek’s second time to relocate a show to the Granada. In February he performed his annual Valentine’s day show there.
“It went great. We sold out,” he says. “[The Granada is] very professional and the sound was great. I loved how they handled themselves.”
He will also host two shows Scat Jazz Lounge in Fort Worth on Dec. 10 and 11, although he says it will have more of a nightclub vibe. Then on dec. 18 he will perform at Palace Theater in Grapevine.
