In the proliferation of Christmas music available on the market this season, you'll notice that even dead singers release new Christmas albums. Take for example the newly released Dean Martin Christmas album, "Christmas with Dino." The album includes the popular Christmas tune "Baby, It's Cold Outside," as a duet between the late Martin and one of today's hottest country music stars, Martina McBride.

McBride's duet with Dino sparked an idea. When she and her creative team sat down to decide what they wanted to update for her fourth touring season of "Martina McBride's The Joy of Christmas," it was obvious to them to take the wonder of modern technology that allowed her to sing with Martin on CD and hike it up a notch or two to a "live" performance on stage.

When McBride stops in Portland at the Cumberland County Civic Center Tuesday night with her Christmas show, you'll see Dino "walk" out on stage, and he and McBride chit chat and joke and sing and dance together, reminiscent of his old variety show days. This technical wizardry is just one of the amazing moments during McBride's theatrical Christmas show.

When the multi-award-winning McBride made noises about doing a Christmas show a handful of years ago, she told Bud Schaetzle, the show's producer, director and co-writer, that she didn't want to do the same old holiday concert tour. "She's done quite a lot of traditional Christmas concert stuff," explains Schaetzle. "I think she mostly felt that she'd already done that. She has a deep-seated interest in giving back to her fans. This (show) is like a Christmas present to her fans and also the kind of Christmas show she'd like to see."

McBride's Christmas show is more like a touring Broadway show, Schaetzle says. There are dancers, actors, singers, multiple costume changes and a host of technical and crew folks to manage the complex lighting, staging, scenery changes and special effects. The scenery changes with each song, taking audiences from a re-creation of the nativity in Bethlehem to a World War II-era scene to a fairyland where snowmen come to life.

McBride even goes out into the audience to talk to her fans about Christmas and invites children to join her on stage to sing with her. "There are sign post moments in the show," says Schaetzle, "where (Martina) stops and just does her thing. These are the most powerful moments in the show."

"All of this (the whole show) is just window dressing for one thing," he emphasizes, "In Martina, you have a world-class voice."

One of the powerful moments during the performance closes the show and it's one moment that Schaetzle admits blows him away every time. When McBride walks out on stage and sings "O Holy Night" a cappella, says Schaetzle, "you have to hear it to believe it."

News assistant Stephanie Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6455 or at:

sbouchard@pressherald.com