Review: Big-hearted ‘White Christmas’ is back in town for the holidays
Review: “White Christmas” (3 stars)
Halloween decorations linger in my front yard and my morning walk with an aging dog was under a warm fall sun. But there I dutifully was at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire Wednesday night, singing along with “White Christmas” as flakes of snow fell on dancers clad in mufflers, headgear and all the other nomenclature of a New England yule.
At the end of the opening night of director Linda Fortunato’s new staging of “White Christmas,” the comic actor Alex Goodrich, who plays a character named Ralph Sheldrake, looked vaguely in my direction in this theater in the round, waved both hands and screamed at the top of his lungs, “Merry Christmas!” Goodrich is a funny guy. I detected a note of irony.
The Marriott is a well-oiled machine, notwithstanding its rather miserly snow budget (I mean, if you are going to go there …) and it has a lot of subscribers to accommodate. Still, it’s early. I’d pack away the gems contained later in this review for at least after Thanksgiving. Treetops will glisten soon enough.
Created for the stage some 20 years ago, “White Christmas” may just be the show I’ve reviewed in the Tribune more times than any other. Nary a season goes by without a Chicagoland production of this seasonal confection; we’ve already used up all the obvious headlines like “Just like the one you used to know.” The tour played downtown in 2017 with Karen Ziemba and Conrad John Schuck. Sean Allan Krill and Erika Stephan were among the stars in Drury Lane’s 2015 production. Marriott’s 2011 production (wonder how much stuff they kept) starred Andrew Lupp (one of this community’s finest male dancers) and Tammy Mader, also a great choreographer. In 2010, I reviewed a touring production that played the then-Bank of America Theatre in the Loop. Adding some complexity to this history, Drury Lane in 2021 produced a show called “Holiday Inn,” a very similar but separate piece based on the 1942 Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire movie that led to the 1954 VistaVision remake, retitled “White Christmas,” with Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen and Crosby, the man associated with the Irving Berlin song that explains why we all were gathered Wednesday and no doubt will gather again, God willing.
In the 1954 Hollywood remake, many more Irving Berlin songs were added (the man wrote 1,500 songs) and, in the show, you can hear such numbers as “Blue Skies,” “I Love a Piano,” and “Sisters,” to name but three. The plot involves a bunch of World War II veterans who decide to head up to Vermont on a moment’s notice to improve the economic fortunes of their former commanding officer. There are no less than three romantic couplings on display, moving at various speeds. At the Marriott, you’ve got the leads Bob Wallace (Ben Mayne) fighting and reconciling with fellow vocalist Betty Haynes (Jacquelyne Jones), part of a sister act with Judy (Kelly Felthous) who is hooking up with Bob’s tap-dancing partner Phil (Tyler Johnson-Campion). Meanwhile, General Waverley (Rom Barkhordar) gets a late-in-life thing going with his innkeeping aide-de-camp Martha (Robin R. McGee).
Forunato’s production is very solid. The diverse New York and Chicago cast is uniformly very good, especially when it comes to warmth and humor; the choreography is strong in the tap department, thanks in part to Johnson-Campion and Felthous; hearing Jones sing is always a pleasure; and everything zips pleasantly along. There’s not a lot of scenery and this is the minimum size of company that could work, but there is a sweet surprise in the design department to enjoy at the end. Beyond the inevitable snow.
I’ve waxed and waned a bit on this material over the years and I’ll never be in love with this book. But if you are looking for a highly professional and laudable affordable production of a family-friendly, all-American musical with true inter-generational appeal, this one surely fits the bill. It’s a unifying, big-hearted kind of show and we could all use one of those right now.
