I was at the first preview of White Christmas, err Holiday Inn, as well, and I was considerably less impressed it seems than some of my fellow board members. The book and rehashed story are a near total mess, and the songs, pulled from many Berlin sources, feel like the warmed over hit parades we've heard so many times with the Gershwin jukebox musicals of late. The book in particular somehow succeeds at being paradoxically the height of cornball hokum and leaden drudgery. The plot follows basically the same story as the White Christmas that graced Broadway twice in the past decade. Farm is in trouble; bills haven't been paid; performers come to the rescue and save the place just in time; (slight) romantic entanglements ensue; girl goes off to make it big (NYC in White Christmas, Hollywood in Holiday Inn).
The songs at least mostly fit the characters in White Christmas, which isn't always the case here. For example, Megan Lawrence, who plays Louise, a weathered New England fix-it farmhand who has lived on the farm for the past 30 years starts singing Shakin' the Blues Away- yes the same one Ann Miller sang Easter Parade- and it's completely ridiculous. "There's an old superstition, way down South," the song begins...what the hell does this character know about old superstitions way down South?? Old revivals way down South, voodoo- all while dancing around in tin pail shoes. This is the very definition of camp.
Likewise, Lora Lee Gayer, who plays Linda, is introduced to us by earnestly singing a brassy version of Marching Along With Time. But from what we later learn of the character this seems completely out of sync with the rest of her life. Are we to believe she was just putting on brave front when singing this song? Well, it's tough to establish that a character is lying to herself (and others) when we don't know her yet, so the number doesn't really work no matter which way you try to rationalize its existence.
A third busted use of a number was the (usually) delightful Lovely Day Today from Call Me Madam, a song that is supposed to used to let a couple fall in love, be twisted rather unnaturally into a song about breaking up. This reminded of the Clear Day revival when they tried to make Wait Till We're Sixty-Five a courtship number, rather than the number that helps wake Daisy up. Lovely Day Today should be the song Pinkham and Gayer sing upon first meeting- not Marching Along With Time. The latter should actually be the song Sikora sings when breaking up with Pinkham!
At least Gayer and Bryce Pinkham has outline sketches of characters to work with. Poor Corbin Bleu- an affable performer- is given precious little to work with. Barely a book scene in act one, and some rather perplexing plot developments in act two. The love triangle is so nonexistent that any who will she end up with is completely missing.
The dancing is mostly good- the Fourth of July sequence had some technical difficulties and I think it threw Bleu off- but honestly the big productions in White Christmas were far more wowing. It makes it especially hard not compare the two when Blue Skies is supposed to be one of the biggest production numbers in both shows.
Megan Sikora essentially disappears for all of act two after playing a fairly prominent role in act one. It's a weird part- she's supposed to be talented, but she's dumb? A gold digger and fame whore, but someone Pinkham's character originally proposes to and thinks would like to settle down on a farm in Connecticut? How could Pinkham know the woman he's worked with for years and claims he loves so little? Are we to believe he's that much for a clueless moron? Or has she been stringing him along, waiting for her big break to ditch him? Very problematic.
The most disheartening thing about the evening is wondering why Roundabout is even putting this on in the first place. Since they rely on grants and donations more than ticket sales to keep running should they be taking bigger risks than staging an obvious holiday cash grab? And by taking risk I'm not talking about transferring some esoteric off-Broadway show that played at The Flea, but mounting things like Drood and 20th Century that wouldn't have a shot at a commercial run otherwise. Roundabout excels at these things, as we've seen the past few seasons. Holiday Inn would have done just fine as the Christmas show this year in a commercial Broadway house. A real wasted opportunity to do something great.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
