REVIEW: HOLIDAY INN Is A Nostalgic Sweet Treat To Start The Festive Season

Wednesday 27th November 2024, 7:30pm, Hayes Theatre

Irving Berlin’s (Music and Lyrics) feel-good film is given a stage musical makeover with HOLIDAY INN.  Sally Dashwood (Director) delivers a delightful small stage interpretation of Gordon Greenberg (Book) and Chad Hodge’s (Book) adaption of Paramount Pictures 1942 classic that celebrates the music of the original with a more streamlined storyline.

The premise of HOLIDAY INN is that Jim Hardy (Nigel Huckle) wants to give up his life on stage to marry co-star Lila Dixon (Emma Feliciano) and live a quiet life running a farm in Connecticut but Lila’s ambitions aren’t aligned with his and she opts to continue on tour with the third member of their act, Ted Hanover (Jacob Steen). While Ted and Lila are wowing crowds across America, Jim is dealing with the run down Mason Farm, supported by farm hand and all-rounder Louise Badger (Paige Fallu). Increasingly disheartened by the failing farm and the cancelled engagement, a party with his former performer friends leads Jim to the idea of reviving his performing career and opening the farmhouse to paying guests for accommodation and a show, but only on holidays, when his friends have time off from their regular shows.  Just as Jim’s life seems to be looking brighter, particularly with a blossoming friendship with local school teacher and former resident of the farm he now owns, Linda Mason (Mary McCorry), another return from his past threatens to upset Jim’s plans, yet again.

Given that HOLIDAY INN predominantly centres on performance spaces, from “The Cat’s Meow” nightclub where Jim parts ways with performing, to the clubs where Ted and Lila wow the crowds on their cross-country tour, and the transformation of Mason Farm into Holiday Inn, set designer Bell Rose Saltearn has created a space that allows for a false proscenium, complete with velvet curtain and a raised bandstand.  Inclusion of elements like farmhouse windows, an upright piano and a sturdy table tie the work to Mason Farm.  Brendan de la Hay’s costume design is at its best for the show numbers with a flurry of ruffles and a sparkle of sequins that echo the Golden-Age of Hollywood aesthetic while also holding contemporary elements. 

As Jim, Nigel Huckle has the requisite level of nervous reserve balanced with an endearing naivety.  While Jim’s views on women and his belief that he gets to decide what they want, ignoring their own ambitions, is somewhat outdated, Huckle still manages to ensure that Jim has endearing characteristics.  He connects to the emotion of Berlin’s songs while holding them back from the precipice of overdone schmaltz while also ensuring that he puts his own mark on the Academy Award winning White Christmas. 

Mary McCorry delivers a strong and steady interpretation of the reserved Linda Mason, adding to the impact of Linda and Jim’s meeting and courtship.  Her vocals are strong and clear with an old-world tone befitting the music from the 1940s.  McCorry allows Linda to be seen as an independent woman who approaches life with caution so that her growth into building a friendship with Jim and realising a childhood dream of performing is more pronounced.

As singer and dancer and Jim’s former co-star and friend, Jacob Steen ensures that Ted Hanover is seen as smooth and ambitious, doing whatever it takes to get his big break into a Hollywood movie.  He’s seen as oblivious to his friend’s concerns while also supporting Lila and Linda’s dreams, but only because they serve his own goals.  On opening night he handled the frenetic Let’s Say It With Firecrackers tap number well, recovering from the fallout of a stage that had not been completely swept of the debris from the New Year concert/party. 

As Mason Farm’s farmhand and all-round fixit person and Jim’s new friend and strongest advocate, Paige Fallu brings a wonderful light energy to her portrayal of Louise Badger while Emma Feliciano’s Lila is bold and brash as she quickly makes it clear that the singer and dancer’s main ambition is fame and fortune and therefore totally unsuited to the life Jim had planned for them.  Lila and Ted’s touring numbers and the Holiday Inn shows are supported by the ensemble of Niky Markovic, Chloe Marshall, Zohra Bednarz, Matt Hourigan and Jamie Resin who are a multi-talented troupe of singers and dancers, supplemented in larger ensemble numbers with Student Interns from Brent Street Performing Arts school. 

With an updated plot to streamline the storyline for stage, HOLIDAY INN is a crowd pleasing piece of nostalgia as Irving Berlin’s iconic songs are given a new life.  Given it started life as a 1942 movie from the Golden Age of Hollywood, it does hold some elements that are very much of its time such as the Jim’s repeated attempts to curtail his love interest’s ambitions, but generally it holds well as an easy to enjoy escape from the real world and celebration of song and dance.

https://hayestheatre.com.au/event/irving-berlins-holiday-inn/

Photos: Robert Catto

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