Irving Berlin classics deck out ‘White Christmas’

Familiar show was more festive on Broadway last year

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

BROADWAY REVIEW

Who saw "White Christmas" last year?

That's the stage version of the 1954 movie starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and a couple of fine Irving Berlin songs. The show played the Marquis Theatre last year and now returns there for the holidays aimed squarely for family audiences. And I do mean squarely.

Beefed up with other Berlin hits like "How Deep Is the Ocean?" the plot regards a famous song and dance team and the revue they stage for their beloved Army general at his Vermont inn. Their wooing of a cute sister act gets disrupted by a misunderstood switchboard message and so forth.

Anyway, all of this tiresome slush at least serves to float a bunch of cheerful production numbers performed in a big way to great old tunes like "I Love A Piano" and "Blue Skies." Snazzy costumes and pretty settings dress out the package.

Sure, it's great-grandma heaven, but last year the show somehow clicked. Silly and synthetic "White Christmas" may be, but the darned thing works as comfort food sort of entertainment.

This time around, however, whatever magic the production possessed last season is mostly missing. The four lead players are different and the chemistry simply isn't sparking among them.

Brightest of the foursome is Tony Yazbeck, a nimble, energetic hoofer and a jaunty personality who resembles a young and sexy version of Eddie Bracken. Yet the relationship Yazbeck forges with pert, blonde Mara Davi appears to be more of a brother-and-sister attachment than otherwise.

Making her first Broadway appearance in four years, the elegant, silver-voiced Melissa Errico sings as beautifully as ever. But there's absolutely zero going on between Errico and James Clow, a completely blank leading man desperately in search of a character. True, he's not doing Bing Crosby, but then he's not being anybody else.

Fans of "M*A*S*H" no doubt will be amused to see David Ogden Stiers huff and puff around as the story's retired general and Broadway regulars are treated to Ruth Williamson wryly doing another of her busybody specialties. Director Walter Bobbie propels everything along at top speed, perhaps hoping that viewers will be pleased enough by the Berlin songs and choreographer Randy Skinner's happy dances to overlook the attraction's absence of electricity.

Unfortunately, with so little charm spread on top of this hunk of holiday pastry, "White Christmas" is mostly a yuletide slog.

"White Christmas" continues through Jan. 3 at the Marquis Theatre, 1535 Broadway, New York. Call (212) 307-4100 or visit www.whitechristmasbroadway.com.