Happy holidays, diva lovers! This week features more short holiday chats with several of this column's favorite gals. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jennifer Barnhart, Heidi Blickenstaff, Anika Larsen, Gay Marshall and Jill Paice about their favorite holiday memories and songs, their New Year's resolutions, what they were thankful for in the year that is about to come to a close and their work plans for 2009. Read on!

JENNIFER BARNHART
"I actually have a fairly recent holiday memory that has become my favorite," says Jennifer Barnhart, the only original cast member still performing in the hilarious, Tony-winning Avenue Q at the John Golden Theatre. "Last year, thanks to the Local One strike, I was able to spend more time with my family during Thanksgiving week. The day after Thanksgiving, my brother traditionally ushers in the holiday season by playing piano at a local seafood restaurant. It's become a huge tradition for many families; it's a sing-along of carols, [and] kids get up and perform a dance to 'Up on the Housetop,' and each table in the place is assigned one of the 'Twelve Days of Christmas,' complete with props and pantomime. It's a big party, culminating in a visit from Santa (one of the bartenders) at the end of the evening, giving out presents to all the kids. For the past several years, I have been unable to go. Last year, I was able not only to attend the shindig, but I got to introduce my fiancé to the tradition, and we helped my mom bring my grandmother to see my brother play. The sight of my 93-year-old grandmother clapping and singing along has become my favorite holiday memory."

Barnhart says she kicks off the season each year with her favorite holiday tune, "O Christmas Tree" by Vince Guaraldi, from the Charlie Brown Christmas album. Her favorite Christmas album "as a whole is 'Let's Sing a Song of Christmas' by Spike Jones. It's funny, and there are some great choral arrangements thrown in for good measure."

The actress, singer and puppeteer, who brings to life a host of characters in Broadway's Q, says she will spend this holiday "much the same way as I have the past few years: On Christmas Eve, after my matinee, I pack myself on the train out to Connecticut to have Christmas Eve with my father, stepmother and aunt. I'll have Christmas Day with my mother and grandmother, then pack up and return the next day for shows on the 26th. Mercifully, we only have an evening show, so I can have a bit of a sleep-in. One significant change is that my fiancé will be with me! He usually visits his family in California from Christmas to New Year's; this year, we'll be visiting his family just after New Year's for a few days."

And, what will 2009 bring for Barnhart? "I'm very excited about the upcoming premiere of a new music series on PBS called 'Lomax: The Hound of Music,'" she says. "It's a show designed to help kids ages four to seven develop a sense of musicality, melody and rhythm through the canon of the American Folk Song. I puppeteer a white cat named Delta — and I also got to do some on-camera work as a human, which is always a blast. In February, I'll also resume production for the ninth season of 'Between the Lions' for PBS, a show that teaches literacy to children ages four to seven where I play Cleo, the mother of a family of lions who live in and run a public library. And [I recently played] Mama Bear on 'Sesame Street.'

"While I do love that I continue to work in children's television," Barnhart adds, "I'm looking to branch out in other directions next year."

["Lomax: The Hound of Music" will make its NYC premiere Dec. 20 on WLIW, Channel 21; check local listings.]

	Heidi Blickenstaff

HEIDI BLICKENSTAFF
It's been some year for Heidi Blickenstaff, the big-voiced big talent who not only opened on Broadway earlier in the season in [title of show] but also recently made her Carnegie Hall concert debut and will soon step into the role of Ursula in Broadway's The Little Mermaid.

About her favorite holiday memory, Blickenstaff, who begins her Mermaid run Jan. 27, 2009, says, "As a kid, I would always sucker my cousins into putting on plays or concerts with me after we opened all our presents on Christmas Eve. They weren't exactly the performing types, but somehow they always indulged me and played along. (I was very persuasive and bossy.) Megan played the flute while I sang 'Silent Night' and/or 'Tomorrow,' and Allison, Lauren, and Jenny would sing back-up. They were always such good sports."

This holiday will find the singing actress — who says she's a "sucker for the entire Vince Guaraldi Charlie Brown Christmas album. I can't wait to start playing it every year and I never get sick of it" — with her boyfriend in Seattle, where he's "doing a show. He's got the 24th and the 25th off, and I think we're going to go get lost somewhere in the Puget Sound."

Blickenstaff, whose Broadway resume also includes The Full Monty, says she is especially thankful this year for "our President-Elect, my healthy family, the best friends in the world, my boyfriend, my Helen Hayes Award, my dog, learning how to scuba dive, The Little Mermaid, and that [title of show] made it all the way to Broadway." As for New Year's resolutions, the upbeat actress simply says, "Enjoyment."

Blickenstaff adds, "I'm thrilled to be playing Ursula in The Little Mermaid on Broadway beginning in late January. We ([title of show]) just played Carnegie Hall as special guests of The Gay Men's Chorus, and I'm still reeling from that. That was, sincerely, one of the biggest thrills of my life to sing a solo on that stage. I'll never forget it. I have a tiny part in a Catherine Zeta-Jones movie coming up called 'The Rebound,' but I'm secretly guessing my part is going to end up on the cutting room floor, so don't hold your breath for that one, but it was super fun to shoot! I've got some other stuff cookin', but it's a little half-baked, so I gotta keep my trap shut. Maybe an album...? Why? What have you heard?!," she laughs.

	Anika Larsen and Kate Monster in the Avenue Q tour
	photo by Carol Rosegg

ANIKA LARSEN
"I have nine brothers and sisters, and six were adopted from different races and countries," singer-actress Anika Larsen, who is currently starring in the national tour of Avenue Q, says. "When we were little, at Christmas time my parents would throw a Christmas party and make all of us kids perform. My mom thought we were the multicultural Von Trapps. I couldn't wait to sing in those shows, because I always got a big, fat solo. I figured out quick that that's how I could get individual attention, and I've been hooked on the junk ever since!"

This holiday will find the former Xanadu star in Clearwater, FL, with the Q tour. "We have four days off — unheard of in the theatre," she says, "from the 22-25th, so I'm flying my baby brother down to Orlando to meet me, and we're going to spend Christmas in the happiest place on earth: Disneyworld! He's 22 and a pretty cool kid, so I wasn't sure if he'd be into it. When I asked him, he said he'd only do it with me if we wore Mickey Mouse ears the whole time. So it is on like Donkey Kong! Especially because Kerry Butler is a Disney freak — or should I say 'connoisseur'? — and she has volunteered to create our itinerary for us!"

Larsen, who says her favorite holiday tune is "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" — "I love Judy Garland singing it, of course, but my favorite rendition is the lovely and sweet one sung by John Denver and Rowlf from the Muppets in 'John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together'" — says she is thankful this year for "Barack Obama. And Michelle Obama. And the hope that Barack Obama has brought to so many. And drama, pajamas, llamas, commas, the Dalai Lama, my mama, and anything else that rhymes with Barack Obama. And Barack Obama!"

As for performance plans in 2009, the good-natured Larsen says, "After Avenue Q tour ends in May, I'm coming back to NYC to do a play with music I wrote about my childhood, produced by my theatre company, Jaradoa Theater. It's called Shafrika, The White Girl, and it basically asks the question, 'What do you get when you toss ten kids of different races into one family and stir?' In the show, my character, Anika, ponders just what kind of white girl she is, having grown up with brothers and sisters who are black, white, Asian, Latino and Native American. Though Anika sets out to do a solo show, her entourage hijacks the thing. They take over the roles of the people in her world, pipe up about their own experiences and opinions, and force Anika to grapple with the truth in a unique and quirky exploration of race, identity and family. Or something like that!" For more information visit www.jaradoatheater.com. Continued...