Brian Allen reaches back four decades.

For 13 years, Good Theater in Portland has hosted a December fundraising concert at the St. Lawrence Arts Center on Munjoy Hill. The concert is always in early December, it always sells out and it always helps puts people in a solid frame of mind heading into the blitz of December. But, it has little to do with the holidays.

The concert, whose cast includes performers from the Broadway world and Maine, is mostly about show tunes, and this year artistic director Brian Allen is focusing on musicals from the 1970s – think “Pippin” and “A Chorus Line,” with a little tinsel thrown in.

“There are so many places where people can go to hear Christmas music,” Allen said. “We like to give them something different.”

The show opens Nov. 30 and runs six performances through Dec. 4. It is a fundraiser for Good Theater, which last year incurred its second operating deficit in 14 seasons.

While the bulk of the music is from Broadway, about 20 percent of the concert is holiday music, and for that Allen mines the not-very-deep well of Christmas songs from the 1970s, a mash-up of John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” The Partridge Family’s “My Christmas Card to You,” Luther Vandross’ “May Christmas Bring You Happiness” and others.

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As a nod to the era, the stage will feel a little like a disco, with a mirror ball, high-top tables and a bar, trimmed in red, white and silver.

There’s not a lot of great holiday music from the ’70s, though there are some surprises, like Jethro Tull’s “Ring Out Solstice Bells,” which Allen will somehow weave together with Bobby Sherman’s “Going Home” and “Feliz Navidad” by Jose Feliciano in an 8- to 10-minute medley. “It’s going to be fun,” Allen promised.

It always is, said Kenita R. Miller, who returns to Portland for her fourth time with the company. She lives in New York and played the role of Miss Celie in the Broadway and national tour of “The Color Purple.”

“Brian always puts together a great show with a great group of people,” Miller said. “He has such a great family there. I have fallen in love with Maine. Any chance I get, I come and perform with him.”

Daniel Patrick Smith, who played Buddy the Elf in the national tour of “Elf,” is another guest star. Smith auditioned for Spike in Good Theater’s production of “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” which closes Sunday at St. Lawrence. He didn’t get the role, but Allen liked his charisma and invited him to perform in “Broadway at Good Theater.”

Fourteen Maine singers join the New York stars: Peter Allen, Glenn Anderson, Marissa Sheltra Brown, Jeff Christmas, Laura Houck, Meredith Lamothe, Steve Leighton, Jennifer Manzi MacLeod, Conor Martin, Lynne McGhee, Jen Means, Halim Moldaver, Amy Roche and Shannon Thurston.

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Victoria Stubbs is the musical director and arranger, with Bill Manning on percussion, Wade Steamer on guitar and David Emma on bass.

For Shireen Shahawy, a Good Theater board member, it doesn’t feel like the holiday season until three things happen in her life: She gets her first red cup from Starbucks (“First world crazy, I know,” she says); she hangs a Christmas wreath on the front of her car, the day after Thanksgiving; and she sees Broadway at Good Theater.

“It’s early enough in the Christmas season that I don’t feel overloaded with commercialism, but it always has music I love – Broadway and holiday,” said Shahawy, who is leaving her post on the Good Theater board this month. She got involved with the theater in part because of her fondness for the holiday show and the role it played in her family celebrations.

It used to be a ritual for her and her daughter, Ally, who now lives out town. Shahawy has continued the tradition with her new husband, Jeff, “who is on board and loves it, too.”

“I would never willingly miss it,” she said.

In the concert’s early years, Allen invited singers to perform their favorite songs and organized a concert around material everybody knew and liked. That worked well for several years, but eventually the singers ran out of favorite songs. Two years ago, Allen decided to use the show to explore the history of Broadway by decade. He started with the 1960s in 2014, and last year turned the show into a tribute to the 1930s. Next year he will focus on musicals of the 1950s.

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The 1970s were rich. The program includes songs from several musicals that are ingrained in American theater: “A Chorus Line,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Sweeney Todd,” “The Wiz,” “Pippin,” “Chicago,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Company,” “Follies,” “Godspell” and others.

Among other songs, Miller will sing “What I Did for Love” from “A Chorus Line” as well as “Lion Tamer” from the one-act Stephen Schwartz musical “The Magic Show.”

Allen likes mixing songs that people recognize with others that are more obscure. From “Annie,” he’s choosing “Easy Street” instead of “Tomorrow,” because “Tomorrow” is too obvious. He’s got one song from the musical “The Grass Harp,” which ran for a total of seven performances.

“I want to give people some of what they like and what they want to hear, but I don’t want it to be overdone material,” he said. “I think that’s what makes this show fun. It’s not necessarily what you expect.”


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