The American composer and lyricist Irving Berlin died in 1989 aged 101. He had written songs for 30 Broadway shows and 17 Hollywood films. He had published 3,000 songs. Not bad, as he said, for a poor immigrant boy who can’t read music. He was born in Russia and came to the US when he was 2.
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas has been touring the UK off and on since 2006. It is in London just for the Festive season. The film, on which it is based, and released in 1954, was never that good; but it has always been popular with audiences who enjoy schmaltz and kitsch and want to hear Bing Crosby sing “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.”
The sentimentality is cringe-making. Two World War 2 buddies (Aled Jones and Tom Chambers in the Crosby and Danny Kaye roles) rally round when their former commander, who runs a winter sports holiday inn, faces bankruptcy. They do it in the time honoured Hollywood musical tradition of putting on a show. They are joined by two singing sisters (Louise Bowden and Rachel Stanley in the Vera-Ellen and Rosemary Clooney roles).
Berlin was always at his best with individual songs rather than a complete score. The stage musical (which premiered in San Francisco in 2004) tries to enliven things by adding old songs, such as “Blue Skies”, which Berlin wrote in 1926. The chorus girls in jackets, hats and stockings are costumed to look like Judy Garland looked in Summer Stock in the “Get Happy” number.
Morgan Young’s old-fashioned production, aimed at uncritical family audiences, lacks imagination. Jones can sing, of course; but he and the other leads are bland. There is just one show-stopper: the tap-dancing “I Love a Piano” number, which opens the second half.