Irving Berlin’s White Christmas The Musical The Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh 15 December 2021 Review
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas The Musical is this year’s Festive Season show at The Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh from Tuesday 14 to Thursday 30 December to at least bring the illusion of a perfect Christmas card with snow and red seasonal outfit glamour to town.
The show is of course based on the classic Hollywood musical film from 1954 starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. This film was loosely based on the earlier 1944 film Holiday Inn which also starred Bing Crosby and gave us the original version of the song “White Christmas”.
If singing and dancing on stage is your chosen profession then this show must be a bit of a dream to work on as it is a faithful homage to not only the core elements of the original film but to all of those wonderful Hollywood musicals of days gone by. Add into that iconic songs from Irving Berlin, one of the masters of his craft, and it is no surprise that everyone on stage seemed to be enjoying performing in this show as much as the audience was enjoying watching it. This show is full of classic song and dance routines, wonderfully crafted songs, great attention to costume detail, and at times simple but very effective stage sets that make full use of the large stage that the Playhouse Theatre provides.
In this production, our classic quartet are ex-army friends now showbiz stars Bob Wallace and Phil Davis (Matthew Jeans and Dan Burton) and the Haynes Sisters, Betty & Judy (Jessica Daley and Emily Langham). All four give us some fine vocal performances and show-tapping footwork when required and Matthew Jeans and Dan Burton also have that very light and easy going touch to everything that is so needed to make a show like this work. Additional song and dance numbers come from our Vermont hotel cast with West End leading lady Sally Ann Triplett (Chicago, Cats, Chess, Guys and Dolls, Anything Goes, Mamma Mia!) starring as Martha Watson who is trying to manage the hotel and its many financial problems for retired General Henry Waverly (Duncan Smith). Eventually getting her magic “moment on stage”, Ella Kemp also puts in a good performance as the General’s grand-daughter. Somehow of course, in true Hollywood fashion, a full song and dance crew also manage to put on their full show performance in the quickly adapted for use hotel barn.
For many people “White Christmas” is the song from this show, but there are so many more classic songs here and for me, “Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)” is always my favourite and it was performed here as it should be done, very simply. In fact, all of the songs in this show were performed in their original style, and that was a pleasure to see as there have been many changes in stage show song performance styles over the years, and some of the contemporary approaches to songs would simply not have suited the feel of this show. These songs were written by a songwriter who understood human emotions, understood phrasing, when to be soft, gentle or loud, and tonight we had a cast that understood these qualities in a song too.
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is a snowflake topped escapist fantasy for all ages to simply sit back in their theatre seats to enjoy and forget any of the problems out there in the real world for an evening.
Review by Tom King (c) 2021
ARTS REVIEWS EDINBURGH
The show is of course based on the classic Hollywood musical film from 1954 starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. This film was loosely based on the earlier 1944 film Holiday Inn which also starred Bing Crosby and gave us the original version of the song “White Christmas”.
If singing and dancing on stage is your chosen profession then this show must be a bit of a dream to work on as it is a faithful homage to not only the core elements of the original film but to all of those wonderful Hollywood musicals of days gone by. Add into that iconic songs from Irving Berlin, one of the masters of his craft, and it is no surprise that everyone on stage seemed to be enjoying performing in this show as much as the audience was enjoying watching it. This show is full of classic song and dance routines, wonderfully crafted songs, great attention to costume detail, and at times simple but very effective stage sets that make full use of the large stage that the Playhouse Theatre provides.
In this production, our classic quartet are ex-army friends now showbiz stars Bob Wallace and Phil Davis (Matthew Jeans and Dan Burton) and the Haynes Sisters, Betty & Judy (Jessica Daley and Emily Langham). All four give us some fine vocal performances and show-tapping footwork when required and Matthew Jeans and Dan Burton also have that very light and easy going touch to everything that is so needed to make a show like this work. Additional song and dance numbers come from our Vermont hotel cast with West End leading lady Sally Ann Triplett (Chicago, Cats, Chess, Guys and Dolls, Anything Goes, Mamma Mia!) starring as Martha Watson who is trying to manage the hotel and its many financial problems for retired General Henry Waverly (Duncan Smith). Eventually getting her magic “moment on stage”, Ella Kemp also puts in a good performance as the General’s grand-daughter. Somehow of course, in true Hollywood fashion, a full song and dance crew also manage to put on their full show performance in the quickly adapted for use hotel barn.
For many people “White Christmas” is the song from this show, but there are so many more classic songs here and for me, “Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)” is always my favourite and it was performed here as it should be done, very simply. In fact, all of the songs in this show were performed in their original style, and that was a pleasure to see as there have been many changes in stage show song performance styles over the years, and some of the contemporary approaches to songs would simply not have suited the feel of this show. These songs were written by a songwriter who understood human emotions, understood phrasing, when to be soft, gentle or loud, and tonight we had a cast that understood these qualities in a song too.
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is a snowflake topped escapist fantasy for all ages to simply sit back in their theatre seats to enjoy and forget any of the problems out there in the real world for an evening.
Review by Tom King (c) 2021
ARTS REVIEWS EDINBURGH
