White Christmas review: Pricey festive treat is as subtle as a snowdrift

Merry and bright: White Christmas is exuberant, dumb fun
Catherine Ashmore
Nick Curtis @nickcurtis27 November 2019

This musical based on the 1954 film is an old-fashioned entertainment, as subtle as a snowdrift. It dollops the audience with brilliant – and some frankly not-so brilliant – songs by Irving Berlin, great dance routines, and a lot of hamming.

Nikolai Foster’s production, originally from Leicester’s Curve Theatre is studded with stage troupers and TV talent show graduates who do their high-kicking, wide-smiling jobs well enough. It’s exuberant, dumb fun.

I doubt most millennials are downloading Bing Crosby musicals, though, and this short London run will appeal mostly to an older, monied demographic. The best available seats on Christmas Eve on the show’s own website are £130. On most other sites, they are £298. Each. Wow.

In some ways, one can’t really complain about the price, though. Or the nonsensical plot which sees two song-and-dance stars eventually find love with two sisters while helping out their wartime commanding officer whose Vermont hotel has suffered a catastrophic lack of Christmas snow.

White Christmas was always a profit-making hodgepodge from the era when Hollywood and Broadway relentlessly cannibalised each other. It was cobbled together borrowing songs from other shows and films, rewritten as leading men came and went, with Rosemary Clooney eventually voicing both female singing parts.

The Dominion’s vast stage at least matches the widescreen scope of Michael Curtiz’s film. It’s best used in choreographer Stephen Mear’s act one closing number Blue Skies and the killer tap routine I Love a Piano.

Danny Mac makes an able straight man to Dan Burton’s clownish flirt Phil, while Danielle Hope and Clare Halse don’t have much to do until their big numbers wheel around.

The quality of the singing is high. Brenda Edwards belts out Let Me Sing And I’m Happy superbly, even though she’s uncomfortably cast as an embodiment of eye-rolling black sass in a show that’s still, well, very white.

The encore, I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm, originally from a 1937 film, is irresistible and brings the audience to its feet. Personally, at these prices, I’d have enjoyed my seat for as long as possible.

Until Jan 4 (020 7927 0900, whitechristmasthemusical.co.uk)

Best pantos to see this Christmas in London - in pictures

1/7

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