Review - White Christmas: Back to Berlin

White Christmas is just too good a musical to be limited to holiday-time productions. Especially when you have Larry Blank's ultra-snazzy swing orchestrations vibrantly delivering a gold-plated assortment of Irving Berlin classics and Randy Skinner's dancers heating up the floor with some sensational tapping.

Based on the classic 1954 film, the stage version of White Christmas, originally directed by Walter Bobbie, has been making seasonal regional appearances since 2004, with stints on Broadway in '08 and '09. The new mounting at Paper Mill, directed by Bobbie's associate director, Marc Bruni, appears to be a slightly scaled down version of the Broadway production, retaining Skinner's choreography and the festive mid-50s designs by Anna Louizos (sets), Carrie Robbins (costumes) and Ken Billington (lights).

The book by David Ives and Paul Blake streamlines the plot and adds some extra Berlin gems ("Happy Holidays," "Let Yourself Go," "I Love A Piano," "How Deep Is The Ocean?") while keeping most of the film's score, including "Sisters," "Count Your Blessings," "Blue Skies," "Let Me Sing And I'm Happy" and "Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me."

Repeating their roles from the Broadway '09 cast, James Clow and Tony Yazbeck play Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, a pair of World War II vets who become big time Broadway song and dance stars, back in the days when being a Broadway star meant you were famous throughout the country. On the evening before they're to leave for Florida to begin rehearsing their next production, the boys catch Judy and Betty Haynes (Meredith Patterson, encoring her performance from Broadway '08, and Jill Paice), performing "Sisters" at a nightclub and, with both professional and romantic possibilities brewing, follow them to their next gig; a holiday engagement at a Vermont inn. But an unexpected heat wave has forced the financially struggling place to forego its entertainment plans after every reservation cancels, until it turns out the owner is Bob and Phil's beloved General Henry Waverly (Edward James Hyland) from their army days, so they offer to move their Broadway show to the general's barn. In the meantime a few wrenches and misunderstandings get in the way of true love, but that's all straightened out by the time the chorus is dancing through the eventual snowfall.

The four leads all deliver top-shelf musical comedy performances, with Clow's sweetly mellow baritone matched by Paice's earthier tones, including her knockout torching of "Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me." Yazbeck's street-wise charisma and Patterson's showgirl sass set off major sparks when romancing to "The Best Things Happen When You're Dancing" and rat-a-tatting atop a very baby grand in "I Love A Piano."

A major factor in getting to the heart of White Christmas is that you have to believe the old general is the kind of man who would inspire the boys to gladly do anything for him, and Hyland plays the role with a heartwarming combination of protective tough love, sincere patriotism and a healthy dose of human decency. Young Andie Mechanic has realistic kid charm as his supportive granddaughter, but the "ringer" in the company is Lorna Luft as the wise-cracking hotel manager. Ives and Blake re-imagined the role played in the film by Mary Wickes as a vehicle for a beloved old pro musical comedy performer, and Luft brings down the house strutting and belting a super-charged rendition of "Let Me Sing And I'm Happy." After her number, the character says that talent like hers can't be learned, "You're born with it." The opening night audience, no doubt in recognition of Luft's lineage, responded to the line with enthusiastic agreement.

Photos by T. Charles Erickson: Top: Meredith Patterson, Tony Yazbeck, Beth Johnson Nicely and Megan Kelley; Bottom: Jacob ben Widmar, Lorna Luft and Luke Hawkins.

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