IRVING BERLIN'S HOLIDAY INN Comes To Jefferson Performing Arts Center Next Month

Jefferson Performing Arts Society presents the musical Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn for a two-week run, from December 2 through December 11, 2022. Shows will be presented on Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m. with Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m. at Jefferson Performing Arts Center at 6400 Airline Drive in Metairie.

The show will be directed by Leslie Castay, who directed the JPAS production of Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy for JPAS in October 2021. Castay was director and co-creator of Southern Rep's original holiday musical, Mandatory Merriment. She won the Big Easy award for Best Director of a Musical with co-director Brandt Blocker for The Musical of Musicals at Le Chat Noir. Other directing credits include This Property is Condemned at Le Petit Theatre, Guys and Dolls at NOCCA, and The Rocky Horror Show at Tulane.

Choreographer Kenneth Beck studied ballet and performed with Gayle Parmelee and the Loyola Ballet, and with Ballet Hysell. Beck has performed and choreographed at JPAS, Le Petit Theatre, Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre, Loyola Opera Theatre, the New Orleans Ballet Ensemble, and New Orleans Opera. For JPAS, Beck has directed Cinderella, The Sound of Music, South Pacific, Chicago, Tarzan, West Side Story, A Chorus Line, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Annie, and Fiddler on the Roof. He and his wife, Kimberly, are the co-directors of the Jefferson Ballet Theatre, and recently presented the JPAS productions of The Nutcracker.

This 2016 musical based on the 1942 film starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, is a sparkling, funny and heartwarming musical containing a luscious Irving Berlin score filled with classics such as "Blue Skies", "Heat Wave"', "Cheek to Cheek", "Easter Parade", and of course, "White Christmas".

Says director Leslie Castay: "The show is all about someone finding a new way to have the best of both worlds as a performer while also wanting a normal life. That sentiment really resonates now with our cast, especially since the pandemic, when so many people slowed down, made career pivots, and really considered what was truly important in their lives."

For more information visit: www.jpas.org.

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