Based on the Paramount Pictures film
Written by Norman Krasna, Norman Panama
& Melvin Frank
Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin
Book by David Ives and Paul Blake

November 6 - December 21
Marian Theatre - Santa Maria, CA

White Christmas music sampler
MP3 - 6mb
WMA - 3mb

"White Christmas the stage production is good enough to become a holiday tradition just like the movie."
-Santa Maria Times

White Christmas

About the play –

The song White Christmas is the most popular of all contemporary Christmas songs. Composer Irving Berlin supposedly wrote the song sitting poolside at the Arizona Biltmore in the early 1940s. While an original version included lyrics that satirized a denizen of Los Angeles who longs for snow and traditional yuletide delights in the face of palm trees and orange groves, Berlin modified the verse but kept the now classic chorus. First performed on Christmas Day 1941 on The Kraft Music Hall by Bing Crosby, in 1942 the song was introduced in the movie Holiday Inn and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Song. The mix of longing and comfort in the song’s lyrics struck a chord with troops fighting in the Second World War and their families waiting for them at home. The Armed Forces Network was flooded with requests for the tune, and its popularity made it the only single to spend three separate runs (1942, 1945, and 1946) at the top of the popular charts. The song and recording of White Christmas by Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter's orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers is recognized as the all-time best-selling single in any music category. (Guinness Book of World Records)

The popularity of both the song and the film Holiday Inn led to the creation of a new cinematic vehicle designed to capitalize on the successful pairing of Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby. After two screen hits (Blue Skies and Holiday Inn), Astaire declined to appear in a third outing. So did the studio’s initial replacement Donald O’Connor; the part of Phil Davis eventually went to Danny Kaye. In addition to the male co-stars, Paramount enlisted Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, Dean Jagger, and a large supporting cast. The motion picture was the first to be filmed with the new VistaVision process and its lush Technicolor cinematography is still celebrated. A masterpiece of both technology and artistry, the production did resort to several moments of subterfuge. The un-credited choreographer for much of the film was a young Bob Fosse;  Vera-Ellen’s singing was dubbed by Trudy Stevens and Rosemary Clooney; and Clooney, under an exclusive contract with Columbia, was not allowed to record the soundtrack album; she was replaced by Peggy Lee.

This stage 2006 holiday spectacular is also a classical “jukebox musical,” a stage or screen musical that incorporates previously released popular songs as its primary musical score. The connective thread in those songs is often a common performer (Mamma Mia! based on the songs of ABBA) or a single composer such as Irving Berlin. While the songs are often the skeleton for the development of a biographical plot, they can also be a celebration of a style or theme. In this case the musical finds its thematic connections in the tale of two war buddies whose post-service careers take them into showbiz and a constant search for new materials. As a part of that search, they discover their perfect mates, their beloved retired commander, and finally “snow” in an idyllic Vermont inn. According to the producers of the impending 2008 Broadway show, “every holiday season, audiences of all ages enjoy the uplifting movie White Christmas. Now, a new generation will be able to experience this holiday traditions in a complete new way – live on stage – a new holiday tradition.”


About the authors –

White Christmas offers audiences music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and a new book by David Ives (All in the Timing) and Paul Blake. According to Jerome Kern, “Irving Berlin has no place in American music. He is American Music. Emotionally he honestly absorbs the vibrations emanating from the people, manners and life of his time and, in turn, gives these impressions back to the world – simplified, clarified and glorified.” And Isaac Stern sums up, “America’s music was born at his piano.”

Berlin was born Israel Baline on May 11, 1888 somewhere in Byelorussia. His family immigrated to New York City in 1893 where Berlin went to work as a street busker and singing waiter after the death of his father in 1901. His first song, “Marie from Sunny Italy” was published in 1907 and by 1911 he had his first international hit in “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” Initially, Berlin relied on musical assistants as he did not play an instrument. And despite his eventual rudimentary skill on piano, he still needed to dictate to arrangers. His personal piano was mechanically adapted to allow him to transpose the musical key for each composition.

In 1914, he produced his first full length work for the musical stage, Watch Your Step, a celebration of syncopated rhythm. During World War I he enlisted in the US Army and staged musical revues including Yip Yap Yaphank with the hit song God Bless America.  Following his wartime service, Berlin returned to New York and built his own theatre, The Music Box, for his musical revues. During the Second World War, Berlin organized a cast of over 300 servicemen into a touring long running revue This Is The Army.  1946’s Annie Get Your Gun, Berlin’s musical loosely based on the life of Annie Oakley, was the most successful of his non-revue musicals. Twice married, the second time to an heiress Ellin MacKay, Berlin lived to 101. An avid patriot and conservative, Berlin actively campaigned for Dwight Eisenhower and worked hard for war bonds and army campaigns during WWII. While universally acclaimed for his work in theatre and public service, his collaborations with Hollywood over the years were mixed. Of seven Oscar nominations he received throughout his career, White Christmas was his only award.

American playwright David Ives was born in 1950. Noted for his short comic dramas full of quick-witted repartee, theatrical inventiveness, and irony, his most popular works include the collections, All in The Timing and Mere Mortals. In addition to works for theatre, he is the author of numerous humorous shorts for the New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker. He is an adapter of works by Feydeau and for the Encore! Concert Musical series. His co-author for White Christmas, Paul Blake is a producer and bookwriter for an adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffanys


About the production –

          For director Valerie Rachelle, the delight of this musical lives in “its heart.” That heart she describes as the blend of male friendship and loyalty that so typifies both the post WWII era and the 1954 nostalgia that was captured in the original film. The honesty, generosity, and camaraderie are then enhanced by the pursuit and discovery of true love; boys get girls, remain partners, and are more open, as we all should be, to the possibilities of life and love. For Rachelle, the end of the play with its classic song and flakes of snow is about finding love and joy where you may not expect it and being willing to embrace that moment when it does arrive.

          With scenic designer Andrew Layton and costume designer Fred Deeben, director Rachelle has also consciously chosen to celebrate the colors and ‘flavor” of the original Technicolor VistaVision movie. They have chosen to blend the vibrant colors of that cinematic feat with the glory of the older film theatre spaces – images of Mann’s Chinese Theatre and the Pantages. They want to invoke the delights of the holiday season served up through the magic spell of post-war moviemaking and viewing. Rachelle talks about her own childhood memories of watching this film in the holiday season and delighting in the “swing of period skirts,” “the excitement of wrapping papers and Scotch tape,” and “the best selling song in the world.”