Review: IRVING BERLIN'S WHITE CHRISTMAS at Theatre In The Park

Shawnee Mission Park’s “Theatre in the Park,” marks the season with an oddly appropriate July production of “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.” As I walked into the venue, I overheard another patron commenting on how nice it was to hear Christmas songs in the grip of a record hot summer.

The item up for view and review is a very nice production of Irving Berlin classic songs and the familiar tale based on a 1954 movie of the same name.  This version has a new book by David Ives and Paul Blake.  There is significantly more Irving Berlin music in the staged musical than in the 1954 film.  

Berlin passed away in 1989 at age 101, but left a tremendous library of musical theater tunes. This traditional style, commercial, musical theater piece spins the tale from the earlier film, but adds characters and expands the musical offerings from ten songs as in the original film to about twice as many in the staged version.  

World War II buddies Bob Wallace and Paul Davis have become a successful song and dance/comedy act in the ten years that have passed since the end of World War II.  Their current show has closed after an appearance on Ed Sullivan’s TV Show and they are in the production process of a new musical revue. 

Bob Wallace (here played by Tom Nelson) is the serious half of the duo.  Phil Davis (here played by Mishi Schueller) remains the same fun loving, girl-crazy, ex-dogface he was in 1945. Phil has received a letter (from another of their army friends) promoting his two singing sisters who are performing nearby.  Bob needs female singers for the new Wallace and Davis Revue and agrees to see their act.  

Enter the Haines sisters Betty (played by Krista Eyler) and Judy (played by Jennifer Renfrow).  Bob is impressed. He offers Betty and Judy the job. Rehearsals begin in Florida the next week.  Betty reluctantly turns the offer down.  The girls have a booking in Vermont they must fulfill. 

No problem, Phil is entranced by Judy and finagles a way the four of them can be together.    Remember, this is 1954 and many people still travel by train.  Bob and Phil accidently on purpose wind up on the same train carrying the Haines sisters to their Vermont booking. 

The Vermont Christmas booking is at a ski lodge owned in retirement by Bob and Phil’s wartime commander General Waverly (played by Chris Halford).  The lodge is not doing well.  There is no snow. 

Bob decides that trying out the new show will work just as well in Vermont as it will in Florida and he moves the entire rehearsal process from Florida to Vermont.  He plans to secretly appeal to all former members of General Waverly’s army division and their families to become the audience for the new revue.  He mails them and then uses his access to Ed Sullivan’s booker to broadcast an appeal.  The idea is that all the new business will save General Waverly’s Inn and everybody wins.

The company rehearses in the barn.  This is such a trope, you can almost expect Mickey Rooney to make a cameo and suggest they do a show in the barn.

The other major characters invented for this adaption are crusty all-around-good-Joe Martha Watson (Pam Sollars) and General Waverly’s granddaughter Susan (Erynn Symons).  Martha is Wavely’s former Sergeant and (it turns out) an Ethyl Merman style Broadway singer.  Martha drives several subplots that connect the whole panache.  Susan is a kind of comedy-relief everybody-loves-a-kid character.  She finally gets to sing near the end of the show. 

“White Christmas” is directed and Choreographed by Kacy Christensen.  The musical director is Kevin Bogan.  The end result is remarkably pleasant, Busby Berkley-like singing and dancing presentation.  It is nice to hear all the familiar music performed well with all the jokes we all know resurected again and gigantic production and tap numbers all performed very well.   

Friday’s night opening performance canceled because of serious storms.  The theater suffered damage to set pieces from the high winds, but the technical staff scurried and managed repair in time for the Saturday eight-thirty p.m. curtain.   The theater was well attended with a reported total capacity of about 4500.

This is the second show I have seen at Theatre in the Park this summer and I enjoyed both.  The performance levels of singing, dancing, and orchestra are extremely high. Theatre in the Park is unique in construction of its summer shows. 

Remember Theatre in the Park is “community theater;” and it is performed by people who donate their time for the love of being part of the company. “White Christmas” is a remarkably professional production.    

Unlike many “community theater” operations, the entire summer season is cast at once in the spring.  Hundreds of people of varied ages audition for the summer productions.  The result is some pretty representative talent.

It is a little unclear from where the notion of “White Christmas” as a staged musical came.  It was first performed onstage at the Muny in St. Louis in 2000 and many times since on Broadway and around the world.  It is also a little unclear if this is the exact show the Muny produced.  Most sources credit this book to David Ives and Paul Blake around 2004. 

The title song is among the most recorded tunes of all time and was written around the end of the 1930s. Where and why and when it was written by Irving Berlin is also a matter of dispute. Some sources claim the song was written in Berlin’s New York home, other sources put him at Phoenix, Arizona in July, and still others put him at La Quinta, California also in July.  It is definite that “White Christmas” was first performed by Bing Crosby on a radio program just after Pearl Harbor in 1941 and again in the movie “Holiday Inn” in 1942.    

Most agree Berlin wrote “White Christmas” as tribute to his deceased infant son who passed on Christmas Day 1928.  Berlin and his wife visited the boy’s grave every Christmas day. Berlin, born a Russian Jew and the son of a cantor who emigrated at age five, was intensely patriotic and passionate about family.   

If you’d like to take a break from the heat, grab your beach chairs and enjoy “White Christmas” at Theatre in the Park. The show runs through July 22.  Tickets are available on line, at the ticket office before each performance, or by telephone at 913-826-3012.

Photos by Nicole McClosky Photography.          

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