BWW REVIEWS: Cabrillo Makes Christmas a Lot Whiter

White Christmas played the Cabrillo Music Theatre @ Thousand Oaks.  The show features a book by David Ives & Paul Blake, music & lyrics by Irving Berlin and direction by Todd Nielsen. The production ran December 26-29 only.

White Christmas is one treat of a film and even brighter on stage. The touring and original Broadway productions, which played Los Angeles only once at the Pantages, in 2005 - please bring it back next season! - were gloriously directed by Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Randy Skinner, who turns the second act opener "I Love a Piano" into one of the most inventive & lively tap sequences ever!

Cabrillo Music Theatre mounted the show this year for 7 performances only, and under Todd Nielsen's meticulous direction, a sturdy acting company made this production a sublimely frothy confection. David Engel (Bob), Roger Rogel (Phil), Jennifer Mathews (Betty) and Cassie Silva (Judy) gave diliriously energizing performances and with Michael Catlin (Sheldrake), Ron Rezac (the General), and Karla J. Franco (Martha) et al offering consistently steady support, the ensemble was top-notch.

Irving Berlin's standards are some of the best songs ever written, and the show contains many not used in the film. The stage score includes: "Sisters", "Happy Holiday", "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy", "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep", "Blue Skies", "How Deep Is the Ocean", "I've Got My Love to Keep me Warm" and of course, "I Love a Piano" and the title tune. Ives' and Blake's book stays faithful to the original film story, and although corny and sentimental, it's one of the best pieces of fluff in existence. And youngsters are going to see it, so, irregardless of what they think or say, its legacy lives on.

Melissa Giattino was faithful to Skinner's original choreography - "...Piano" had its own special zing. Darryl Archibald served marvelously as musical director, with the entire orchestra visible on stage. Mounted like a Reprise! production, the show lacked nothing; it was a delightfully generous post-holiday offering to its SRO audiences.