From left, James McClellan, Colleen Chance, Todd Hancock, Maureen Collins, Mary Jo Maluso and Rick Blackson perform “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” at the Arms Family Museum for the television version of Easy Street Production’s “Miracle on Easy Street.” Submitted photo

Easy Street Productions’ co-founders Todd Hancock and Maureen Collins will showcase the singers, dancers and Little Rascals that audiences have come to expect with this year’s “Miracle on Easy Street.”

But as the show moves to television for the second straight year due to lingering issues with COVID-19, they also plan to use it as a showcase for the city the theater company has called home for more than 30 years.

Musical and dance numbers were filmed at the Butler Institute of American Art, the Arms Family Museum, Mill Creek MetroParks’ Pioneer Pavilion, the St. James meeting house at Boardman Park, St. Patrick Church and DeYor Performing Arts Center’s Powers Auditorium, where the show traditionally would have been seen by a live audience.

Instead, a recorded version will be broadcast four times between now and Christmas (7 p.m. Monday and 8:30 a.m. Dec. 25 on WFMJ-TV, and 7 p.m. Wednesday and 2 p.m. Dec. 25 on WBCB-TV).

“We wanted to mix it up this year, filming in historic Youngstown places that people will know,” Hancock said. “Last year I was surprised how many streamed the show from out of town. Most had seen ‘Miracle’ over the last 30 or so years and moved away. I can’t tell you how many have told me, ‘I can’t wait to see the show again and I can’t wait to see Youngstown again. We owe a big thank you to the organizations that opened their doors to us.”

Last year, when more stringent COVID-19 protocols still were in place, Easy Street was limited by what it could do. Singers performed solo, dancers had masks on underneath their Santa beards for one musical number, and the Little Rascals only appeared via Zoom.

With vaccines now available, the adult singers and the older dancers were able to get vaccinated and work together in close proximity without masks. Other area theaters mounted productions in recent months, but with vaccines not approved for children by the time rehearsals normally would have started, Hancock and Collins decided they didn’t want to do a live production.

“If we couldn’t do it with the Little Rascals, we didn’t want to do it,” Hancock said.

The young children who participate in Collins’ musical theater workshops will be a part of the show, recording their parts remotely again.

“I was so grateful those kids came back again,” Collins said.

An unexpected benefit from last year’s television production is that those remote workshops now include some children from outside the Valley, either the children of former residents or relatives of residents who streamed last year’s show.

Even with fewer restrictions, Hancock said he had to make some difficult choices about what to include and what to cut.

“It’s what people expect from ‘Miracle on Easy Street,'” he said. “I picked the most TV-friendly portions of the show. You have to fit a two-hour show into an hour-long TV broadcast.”

But the television broadcast allows a different perspective. The pinwheel dance routine of the toy soldiers only could be appreciated by those in the upper balcony when it was performed at Powers Auditorium. An overhead camera at the Butler will allow everyone to see it on television.

“For me, hands down, the best part was getting to sing at St. Patrick,” Collins said. “That’s my home parish. Being able to sing in that place is really amazing. I’ve had an opportunity to do that before, I’ve done liturgies for them, but to echo out ‘O Holy Night’ in that building was amazing.”

The Easy Street Dancers perform on the altar while Collins sings the hymn, and Hancock called it one of the highlights of the program.

It also provided the opportunity to do some new things. Hancock and James McClellan recorded a version of “Peace on Earth” / “Little Drummer Boy,” a duet originally performed by Bing Crosby and David Bowie for a ’70s television special, for a Christmas CD Easy Street released several years ago, but they’d never included the song in the live show. Hancock said it was a perfect song to do at Boardman Park’s St. James meeting house.

“And we have the Little Rascals backing us up Zoom style with sign language,” Hancock said.

Easy Street did its first live indoor performance since the pandemic started with ” Nunsense” in November, and several productions are being considered for 2022. While there have been benefits from the televised ‘Miracle,’ both Hancock and Collins said they hope this is the last time they have to perform these Christmas songs for a camera instead of a crowd.

“It has to be back next year,” Collins said. “Somehow we have to get all these people vaccinated so we’re not in the same position next year.”

When to watch …

The “Miracle on Easy Street” television special will air four times around Christmas. It will be shown 7 p.m. Monday and 8:30 a.m. Dec. 25 on WFMJ-TV and 7 p.m. Wednesday and 2 p.m. Dec. 25 on WBCB-TV.