{"id":119452,"date":"2019-11-18T01:01:19","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T00:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/2019\/11\/18\/thursford-christmas-spectacular-review-a-sugar-rush-of-festive-cheer\/"},"modified":"2019-11-18T01:01:19","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T00:01:19","slug":"thursford-christmas-spectacular-review-a-sugar-rush-of-festive-cheer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/?p=119452","title":{"rendered":"Thursford Christmas Spectacular review \u2013 a sugar rush of festive cheer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019s reserves of rhinestones and fairy lights, started as a small carol concert 43 years ago. Under John Cushing\u2019s 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\u2019s 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 \u2013 by this stage, sense is drunk and passed out in the corner \u2013 a bagpipe accompaniment to Billy George\u2019s spinning-top cyr wheel. Phil Kelsall\u2019s hands are a hurricane on his remarkable wurlitzer organ and the choir gives a rousing performance of Phantom\u2019s Masquerade. Continue reading&#8230;<br \/>\nVia: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/stage\/2019\/nov\/18\/thursford-christmas-spectacular-review-thursford-collection-norfolk\" target=\"_blank\">Thursford Christmas Spectacular review \u2013 a sugar rush of festive cheer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}