Review: WHITE CHRISTMAS Sparkles at York Little Theatre

The original movie of WHITE CHRISTMAS has been around since 1954, and it lifted a song or two from the previous HOLIDAY INN, also an Irving Berlin classic, so that the stage version, IRVING BERLIN'S WHITE CHRISTMAS, seems to be older than it is, though it only hit the stage in 2004 and Broadway in 2009. The lyrics and music, not surprisingly, are by Irving Berlin - in this day, it's amazing that some other composer wasn't brought in to "help out", but fortunately, this was avoided - and the book by David Ives and Paul Blake. If you know the movie from memory, it's not quite the same (there's no Ed Sullivan Show in the movie, for example), but it's still the same classic story.

Over at York Little Theatre, directed by Rene Staub, Berlin gets his due, with Christopher Quigley and Cory Holtzman as the entertainment team of Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, with Nina Cline and Libby Burgess as Betty and Judy Haynes, aka "The Haynes Sisters," with Payton Lutz as Susan Waverly, granddaughter of General Henry Waverly (Mike Ausherman), and particularly with Chris Ausherman delivering Martha Watson, one of the great parts for the classic Ethel Merman-variety belting that Ausherman's made a local name for pulling off. If her "Let Me Sing And I'm Happy" isn't the vocal star turn of the show, it's pretty close.

But Quigley's there as well, delivering Bob Wallace's numbers, like Act One closer
"Blue Skies" and "How Deep Is The Ocean" with the sort of vocal purity and intensity one doesn't often find in community theatre; his Wallace is less over the top (though the parts are in fact necessarily over the top) as his Willy Wonka or Pirelli, and he can pull off a less flamboyant role than those with real sincerity when it would be easy to be less artistic and more attention-grabbing.

When a show's story holds together so well, and its performers are this well-cast, it's a shame that its mostly brilliant lyrics seem disjointed - but Berlin wrote some songs for the original movie, then pulled in a few recycled ones ("Snow" was a tune originally written for another musical), and Ives and Blake used a few other recycled Berlin songs as well in varying the music from the movie. There are more songs in the show than in the movie, and squeezing in "I Love A Piano" and "Falling Out Of Love Can Be Fun," among others, really do feel as if someone was throwing in songs just to get them in. While "I Love A Piano" is a great number, though requiring a bit of forcing to make sense in the show, "Falling Out Of Love," from the long-forgotten Berlin Show MISS LIBERTY, isn't much better than the original show, and is usually cut from productions (although the scene does add a moment of helpful exposition, it's otherwise painful). Staub might have done well to make that usual cut.

On the other hand, even if "I Love A Piano" makes a slightly forced Phil-and-Judy scene in the script, when done well it's a stunner anyway. While only Libby Burgess may be tapping on top of the piano, the ensemble that's tapping on stage may be one of the largest dance ensembles that YLT has seen. It's loud. It's raucous. It's tap. And if you don't love tap, you shouldn't go to most classic book musicals, especially if they have any Berlin numbers in them.

WHITE CHRISTMAS is one of the more delightful Christmas shows. Unlike A CHRISTMAS CAROL there are no scary moments (except for a lack of snow). Unlike A CHRISTMAS STORY, there are no threats of blinding. Unlike THE NUTCRACKER, even with a barn for a theatre in the story, there are no evil mice. It is, except for some moments of Bob's and Betty's romance, almost entirely happy, which makes it a perfect show for those frazzled by Thanksgiving, by shopping, and by the thousand other ills that beset holidays. And while Betty may complain, "Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me," Staub and his cast have done right by the show.

This production has one of Staub's best uses of projections, especially in the train scene, and Cory Holtzman deserves special mention for some wonderful costume design. The show's been all but sold out for the entire run, and truly should have had one more weekend added. It's worth it for a full-scale Christmas extravaganza of this sort.

At York Little Theatre through November 29. Catch it if you can. Next on deck, a farce, SEX PLEASE, WE'RE SIXTY, at the end of January. For tickets and information, visit ylt.org.

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