Rhode sisters bring Christmas family memories

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There's a disarming and winning simplicity to the Christmas you'll share with the three Rhode sisters — Alissa, Molly and Angelyn — if you drop in on "A Rhode Family Christmas," playing in Elm Grove's Sunset Playhouse through Dec. 22 and in Door County during the following week.The flower girl usually an adorable little lady aged three to eight proceeds down fashion sports girl aisle just before the maid of honor scattering rose petals along the bridal path.It is the key to your sex kitten outfit success. Therefore, they want the information as well as pictures of the best designed costumes.So calm your nerves and make yourself know that girls wearing these dresses are not from another planet open bra pics They are the same girls like you.

But while that homespun charm is the real deal, it's also not the entire story.

The musical instruments crowding Sunset's Studio Theatre stage — dominated by the piano Alissa plays so well and stringed instruments ranging from a ukulele to an upright bass — make clear that this family of sisters raised in Brookfield is also something different.

Separated by five-year gaps — 36-year-old Molly is what she wryly refers to as the "well-adjusted middle child," with Alissa being older and Angelyn younger — each of these musically gifted sisters makes her living as an artist, carrying on the musical tradition in an extended family which, we're told, includes five bass players, a dozen pianists and four piano teachers.

Given that all three can sing and harmonize well, the Rhode family's rendition of Christmas music — complemented by the sisters' father, Steve, and Molly's husband, actor and musician Chase Stoeger — doesn't add up to your typical holiday singalong.

But even within the many beautifully rendered moments in this smartly scripted show, the Rhodes don't seem very interested in wowing their audience with how good they are.

True to the aesthetic at American Folklore Theatre, where both Alissa and Molly have logged time, the Rhodes spend the night forging connections, sharing a vision of art and performance that is populist and inclusive, even as it maintains rigorous musical standards.

It's not that the Rhodes are hiding their shining light under a bushel. But they approach all that they can do with straightforward equanimity rather than narcissistic awe, which leaves room for the rest of us to recall and cherish our own families and traditions, once our memories have been jogged through what they've shared with us of theirs.

The Rhodes' inclusive approach means audience participation, Stoeger's goofy jokes, loads of self-deprecating humor, a dose of Alvin from the Chipmunks (a Stoeger favorite) and silly but expertly presented songs such as "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor (On the Bedpost Overnight)" and "Somebody Snitched on Me."