‘Divas’ set to light up the holidays

“A Christmas Carol’’ is “really great, but we’ve done it for five years in a row, so we thought, let’s just try something different,’’ says artistic director Kate Warner.

Warner remembered her fondness for those celebrity Christmas TV variety specials of yesteryear. And she thought, “What if we did something along those lines, and it was a cabaret?’’

A brainstorming session at New Rep came up with the title “New Rep’s Darling Divas Deck the Holidays.’’

“Then we went down the list of divas in Boston,’’ deadpans Bobbie Steinbach.

Steinbach’s smoky, sardonic voice is one of four that will be heard in the show, alongside those of Michele A. DeLuca, Aimee Doherty, and Kami Rushell Smith. Steinbach, DeLuca, and Doherty have long New Rep resumes including shows like “Hot Mikado’’ and “The Wild Party.’’ Smith was in the company’s “Dessa Rose.’’

“I have not been able to work with Bobbie yet, so this was a perfect opportunity,’’ says Warner, who directs the show. “I wanted to have Aimee come in because she’s going to be with us this spring for ‘The Last Five Years.’ Kami Rushell Smith is going to be in ‘Passing Strange,’ which is also coming up. And I just kind of fell in love with Michele DeLuca when she was in ‘Hot Mikado’ last spring.’’

There are just five performances, with matinees this Saturday and Sunday and evening shows next Tuesday through Thursday at Watertown’s Arsenal Center for the Arts. New Rep veteran Todd C. Gordon is the music director and will play keyboards in a trio accompanying the singers.

Warner says everyone involved put their favorite holiday songs onto the list, from “Jingle Bells’’ through “Baby, It’s Cold Outside’’ to “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?’’ There will also be short readings from “A Christ mas Carol’’ and other Christmas favorites.

“It’s just a collection that we go from touching to upbeat and back to touching,’’ Warner says.

“And a little bit outrageous,’’ interjects Steinbach, who has clearly been cast as the rum in this theatrical eggnog. “I’m going to bring back a character . . . who is my alter ego, Hurricane Cohen. She is Miss Steinbach’s dresser. She used to be a stripper, a very famous stripper.’’

“How old is she?’’ asks Warner.

“She’s about 107, actually she’s very old,’’ says Steinbach. “But she has a wonderful song, ‘The Eight Days of Chanukah,’ where she talks about the gifts her husband of 75 or 76 years has given her. It’s around the same time as their anniversary. She gets things like Playtex gloves and onion rings.’’

So far, having four women singing their favorite holiday songs has been comparatively simple to produce.

“We’re having a ball in rehearsal,’’ Warner says. “It’s just been this really congenial process. And it’s always fun to have a cast of all women.’’

“Fabulous, fabulous women,’’ Steinbach puts in. “With great hair.’’

The staging is also relatively simple, Warner says, with “fabulous sparkly cocktail holiday dresses’’ for the cast, lots of holiday lights, and a sparkling night-sky curtain behind the performers, known as a star drop.

“I really always have to have a star drop in any show I do,’’ says Steinbach.

Joel Brown can be reached at jbnbpt@gmail.com.