Ilana Keller|Asbury Park Press
It's not quite a manger, but kicking off the holiday season in a barn has become a treasured tradition for Betsy Wolfe and Shore audiences.
And this year will be especially sweet, as the Broadway favorite returns to Holmdel Theatre Company on Dec. 3 for an in-person concert after last year's COVID-forced livestream.
It promises to be a night full of cheer, laughter and maybe a few tears.
"I can barely get through 'I'll Be Home For Christmas,' "Wolfe ("Waitress," "Falsettos," "The Last Five Years") said. "Last year, I didn't fly to see family, like so many of us did not.I just want to laugh with people. Things have been obviouslyreally hard for so many and sometimes we just need a really, really good laugh that only being in the companyof others we love can sometimes provide."
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Wolfe said she's looking forward to sharing her own spin on some holiday favorites.
"Just getting us all solidly in the moodI think is my favorite thing to do," she said. "I'm obsessed with the holidays.I love them so much."
Her lineup won't be limited to seasonal songs.
"I also want to sing just really, really incredible songs that I've been dreaming about singing for two years," she said, some from musicals she's starred in, with some surprises."I have become such an Olivia Rodrigo fan. Who knew?I thought Iwas maybe a little bit old for her crowd, but no, not true. So I'm totally going to be exploring a really fun pop song of hers."
The Broadway at the Barn series has welcomed Melissa Errico, Eden Espinosa andChristina Bianco this season.This is the third year Wolfe has celebrated the holidays withHolmdel Theatre Company, which performs at the Duncan SmithTheater, a converted barn.
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"It's such a unique space," Wolfe said. "I mean, obviouslyin New York Citythere aren't many opportunities to perform in a barn. So I love the ambiance. And it's a really, really intimate space."
She appreciates the close-knit nature of the crowd.
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"I've just always gotten a sense that people who come to Holmdel know each other, love each other and support each other," she said. "I couldn't almost get people to shut up during the first two years. And I was like'this is my kind of crowd.' So honestly, I've loved the vibe that the Holmdel Theatre creates.
" ... The idea that we're going to beback in person is just so thrilling, and I just cannot wait to connect with that audience again."
The last two years have given everyone new perspectives, and that has certainly affected Wolfe's approach to songs.
"(It's) my job to translate the material," Wolfesaid. "And I would be doing such a disservice if I didn't really look at what I was saying, and what we're all saying right now, I believe, means something different than it did 18 months ago.... And yet I still know that tomorrow, it may mean something totally different. That's the beauty of art."
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Wolfe and her husband Adam Krauthamer welcomedadaughter in May 2020.
"When I did 'Waitress,' I wasn't yet a mom," she said."And I just think, 'Ohmy gosh, I understand that lyric in a different way than I ever would have understood it.' And so I really, really love re-exploring the 'Waitress' material just because ... it takes on such a different meaning."
Wolfe is looking forward to being a part of a new Broadway, one that welcomes more voices from women and diverse storytellers.
"I definitely know how I've wanted to come out of this and what art and what stories I want to tell," she said. "I always, always want to tell a story that hasn't been told, and to further the conversation. And I think that now more than ever before, there are incredible roles that are being written for females, and I am just so excited about the future, what that could possibly be."
And she's learned more from being away from the stage for so long.
""When your profession is stripped away from you overnight, I think we all had to take a look at ourselves and what we do, and I am beyond grateful that I'd started a educational program for studentsin 2018," she said.
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Wolfe co-founded Broadway Evolved, which offers training programs and intensives with professional artists, with education professional Cynthia Rose.
"That became my my full-time job, figuring out a way I could give back to the students who'dalso had their lives completely changed overnight," Wolfesaid. "Many of them were in arts programs and shows that got canceled and they couldn't necessarily understand what was happening to them. It's been interesting to ... take this new stage of what life looks like now, and to say 'This is still a huge piece of me,' inspiring the next generation."
Wolfe's concert in Holmdel is sold out. To join the waitlist, email colleen @holmdeltheatrecompany.org. Visitholmdeltheatrecompany.orgto keep up with the theater's offerings, and visitbroadwayevolved.comand betsywolfe.comfor more information on Broadway Evolved and Wolfe's other work.
Ilana Keller is anaward-winning journalist and lifelong New Jersey resident who loves Broadway and really bad puns. She highlights arts advocacyand education, theater fundraisers and morethrough her column,"Sightlines." Reach out onTwitter: @ilanakeller;ikeller@gannettnj.com
