Copyright 1997 The Southland Times Company Limited The Southland Times (New Zealand) December 16, 1997 OPINION; Pg. 23; TELEVISION Santa, upscaled BY: FALLOW Michael A GOOD night out is a good night out. TV3's big free Chrissy concerts would seem to be that, so a nod of gratitude is in order. The only real problem is that it insists on televising them. This leads to disconcerting spectacles, not the least of which is John Hawkesby trying to communicate with people at the very back of an audience numbered in the hundreds of thousands. We at home get to see his huge performance in painful closeup where it's frankly a little bit grotesque. I have some sympathy for him; it can't be easy trying to be an avuncular Freddy Mercury. The concert had twin appeals: sometimes it was fun to pick holes in the acts; sometimes it was fun just to enjoy them. [snip] Nice joke; shame about the context. A Christmas show isn't really the place to sharpen satirical talons. Lucy (Xena) Lawless proved she can carry a tune. Not all that far, though. Musically the most tragic deterioration came in The 12 days of Christmas, where the least musical stars were clustered at the end. Six days would have been plenty. The ninth day was an atonal nightmare straight from the back of a sports-team bus. The most unsettling case of deja-vu came from a duet by Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Kevin Smith. Just one night earlier we'd seen the pair of them in the laughably overheated Desperate Remedies; she disporting herself in a red veil, he doing his full-frontal nude smoulder. Now here they were chastely paired singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. [snip]