TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA

Prudential Center

Newark, New Jersey

December 21, 2019

by Christine Natanael

For the past 21 years a troupe of rock musicians, singers and classical string players have toured in two simultaneous US markets with two completely separate touring companies, one on the East Coast and one on the West. These solo headliners play two performances per day, for a total of 109 shows in 66 cities over the course of seven weeks during the holiday season. They have charted nine albums in the Billboard 200, with four of them reaching the top ten. They are Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

The night in Newark at the Prudential Center was a brilliantly re-envisioned rendition of the group's heavy progressive 1996 triple-platinum album Christmas Eve and Other Stories, the extravagant musical show conceived and written by the late group founder Paul O'Neill, producer Bob Kinkel, Jon Oliva and Al Pitrelli.

Where the group's first tour used a standard stage layout with small sound and lighting for the first five shows, they ultimately brought in pyrotechnics and automation by 2008. In 2017, it was a show which required 20 trucks and 120 people to move, set up and tear down. This year the stage show is even more elaborate than in the past years. The 2006 t-shirts and merchandise carried the motto, "Light It, Fog It…