I’M DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS
THAT WORKS
It is possible that Irving Berlin’s White Christmas might succeed with audiences. Possible, that is, if they are willing to tolerate a lame, cliché-ridden plot in exchange for large samplings of the Irving Berlin songbook.
The musical is an adaptation of a 1954 motion picture (simply called White Christmas) that starred Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Producers of the stage adaptation apparently added the composer to the title in an attempt to enhance the brand name of their enterprise, and the Marriott Theatre is reviving the show as an early entry in the holiday entertainment derby. The mawkish musical – basically a variation of the let’s-put-on-a-show storyline – originated in San Francisco in 2004 and made a brief and depressing stop in downtown Chicago last winter.
The sleight plot is reminiscent of most MGM musicals, escapist fare that needed no more than a wisp of story to get to the next popular tune. A popular song-and-dance team, Bob Wallace (Rod Thomas) and Phil Davis (Andrew Lupp), served under a crusty but benevolent general named Henry Waverly during World War II. The general bought a winter resort after returning to civilian life, and now his investment is in peril because Vermont (where most of the musical takes place) is experiencing a heat wave, driving away all the winter sports customers. So Wallace and Davis decide to put on a show that would attract lots of paying visitors and thus bail out the good general before the bank forecloses.
That love element is established when the boys encounter a nightclub act consisting of sisters Betty (Stephanie Binetti) and Judy Haynes (Tammy Mader). Complete with ludicrous misunderstandings, this quartet stretches romantic confusions to the last scenes, when saccharine happy endings abound.
The Marriott can’t do anything to redeem the hopeless book, and indeed the production sometimes aggravates its inherent problems by turning loose heavy doses of shtick and hamming in the name of comic acting (Michael Weber’s performance as the dithering, overwrought director of the Vermont show is a chilling example). The characters include a precocious little girl (Madison Gloria Olszewski) who is turned loose to tug at the heartstrings of the audience, but only made my teeth ache. Still, credit Olszewski with a powerful set of pipes that bodes well for the lass should she decide to pursue a career in music theater (she alternates with Kate Wild in the role).
On the positive side there are all those Irving Berlin standards – the iconic title song, “Happy Holiday,” “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep,” “Blue Skies,” and “How Deep Is the Ocean” – along with a bunch of serviceable but less familiar numbers (Patti Garwood conducts the excellent eight-piece orchestra). Director Marc Robin’s choreography is mostly in the 1930s style, highlighted by Fred-and-Ginger duets involving Lupp and Mader in “The Best Things Happen When You’re Dancing” and “I Love a Piano.” The dance numbers feature a wardrobe full of colorful outfits by Nancy Missimi.
An attractive, energetic, and extremely skilled eight-member chorus delivers one solid tap dance number after another. Indeed, the real stars of the show are those high-stepping chorus boys and girls who deserve to be named individually – Matt Raftery, Matthew Crowle, Adam Estes, Ashton Napier, Katheryn Patton, Buddy Reeder, Sam Rogers, and Tiffany Topol.
Thomas and Lupp are fine as the male leads, Thomas the better singer and Lupp the better dancer. Mader plays the comic half of the Haynes sisters and dances beautifully. Binetti has a radiant singing voice and a stately stage presence, but her acting skills are mostly wasted in this two-dimensional role, which consists primarily of bickering with Bob until the inevitable clinch (would that we were watching a revival of “The King and I,” as she would make a fine Anna).
As the major supporting character, Alene Robertson contributes her standard wisecracking Ethel Merman bit, and David Lively does what he can with the role of the general, which descends into pure bathos by the end of the show. One performance that coaxed a few laughs from the opening night audience came in the form of Michael Aaron Lindner, who plays the role of a stereotyped laconic New Englander. The entire cast is deep with actors who have been principal players in earlier Marriott productions, such as Bernie Yvon, Anne Gunn, Ericka Mac and Johanna McKenzie Miller.
Yet the only time your Christmas will be bright is when the characters stop talking and start singing and dancing; when this happens, the evening actually becomes an agreeable entertainment.
photos by Peter Coombs and The Marriott Theatre
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas
Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire
ends on January 1, 2012
for tickets, visit Marriott
for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago
