Thursford Christmas Spectacular review – a sugar rush of festive cheer

Thursford Collection, NorfolkA fever-dream of outrageous talent and suffocating joy, this extravaganza must be seen to be believed, albeit just the onceI close my eyes and can see only sequins. In a field in Norfolk, every inch of an old barn is covered in excessively garish Christmas glitz. Carousel horses dangle from the ceiling and a harp is tucked between two enormous snowmen. The annual Thursford Christmas Spectacular, which must be using the entire country’s reserves of rhinestones and fairy lights, started as a small carol concert 43 years ago. Under John Cushing’s direction, it has grown into a staggering, glittering, screwball revue; a festive fever-dream of outrageous talent and suffocating joy.For the last two months of the year, the steam engines that normally form the family-run Thursford Collection (founded by Cushing’s father) are pushed aside, covered in fake snow and straddled by animatronic polar bears. Focus is redirected to the 45 metre-long stage that hosts 150 performers with a bewildering cannonball variety of acts: nail-biting roller-skating, camp a cappella, angelic carols, a hoedown, aerial silks and – by this stage, sense is drunk and passed out in the corner – a bagpipe accompaniment to Billy George’s spinning-top cyr wheel. Phil Kelsall’s hands are a hurricane on his remarkable wurlitzer organ and the choir gives a rousing performance of Phantom’s Masquerade. Continue reading…
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