Tap-dancing penguins and high-kicking Santas take the stage to celebrate the holidays in "The 2011 Christmas Show: Winter Wonderland" at American Music Theatre.

With 10 musicians in a cotton snow drift center stage, six energetic dancers, 10 talented vocalists and a rotating cast of 60 enthusiastic children (but no partridge in a pear tree), this is an epic production.

The show doesn't have a real through-line, other than Christmas, making it feel like a craft project where you string beads (Christmas songs) on elastic cord and call it a necklace. Occasionally this necklace feels like a Tiffany creation, most notably during the high-powered instrumental light show "Christmas Eve."

The orchestra, led by music director Andy Roberts, deserves its own show, since that's where the heart seems to beat in this revue of 35 carols and secular Christmas hits, created and directed by AMT Artistic Director Andrea McCormick. Some of the arrangements seem innovative.

John-Philip Bowen does a nice job singing a melancholy medley of "Jingle Bells" and" I'll Be home for Christmas" while wearing a dress uniform that somehow fails to conjure up real Americans fighting far from home. I remember similar numbers from past AMT Christmas shows that brought a lump to my throat. But there's something too generic here, a sober sincerity that simply doesn't allow the audience to emotionally connect with the song. Maybe if Bowen wore desert fatigues and drove on stage in an armored Humvee, it would work better. Or maybe not.

That generic flavor (see the show's title) is the blandness in the eggnog of this otherwise worthy effort.

The men mainly wear tuxedos; the women wear beautiful gowns, many of which look like they were borrowed from the closets of Disney princesses. Familiar faces like Wess Cooke, Michelle Rajotte and Todd Mitchell are back, and, in fact, seem to be the stars of this production. Rajotte even reprises her old shtick of being a young girl making silly kid jokes and cavorting like a 7-year-old.

The actual children in the cast fare better, bringing fresh faces and clearly loving what they do. The show's one plot thread involves a boy who wants to retrieve the letter he mailed to Santa. He wants to change something, and it's all very mysterious until the middle of Act 2, when he confronts Santa. What he wants to change isn't moving or mysterious, but kind of lame (although VERY polite).

Of course, who doesn't enjoy hearing "Silver Bells," "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Ave Maria" sung by beautiful voices? In fact, when the full cast turns "O Come All Ye Faithful," "O Holy Night" and "Joy to the World" into chorale numbers, the show enjoys its finest moments.

You'll be aware of a lot of "gobo-ing," namely lights flashing in defined streaming patterns both on stage and over the audience. "Gobo" is theater slang for "goes between optics." Being aware of these lights, rather than being blown away by them, indicates an over-reliance on one lighting technique. I was also disappointed that the show leaves its flanking big screens blank throughout.

But here's a nice blast from the past. Ric Zimmerman, who's performed all over the world with his standout voice, was once (in the 1980s and early '90s) the leader of a dynamic Lancaster County youth chorus called Celebration Singers. He's better than ever on AMT trio and duet numbers including "Mary, Did You Know" and "Angels We Have Heard on High." Give that man a solo, and God bless us everyone.

 "The 2011 Christmas Show: Winter Wonderland" runs through Dec. 30 at American Music Theatre, 2425 Lincoln Highway East. For ticket information, call 397-7700 or visit amtshows.com.