White Christmas is a dream
The weather outside doesn’t matter this holiday season, inside the Kelowna Actors Studio it will be a White Christmas. Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, that is.
Kelowna Actors Studio’s holiday production is based on the 1954 film starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen and brings a feeling of nostalgia for the golden age of movie musicals.
The entire cast is strong vocally and the production includes classic Berlin songs such as White Christmas, Count Your Blessings and Blue Skies.
The story follows army veterans Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, a successful song and dance team.
Randy Leslie, artistic managing director of Kelowna Actors Studio, is Bob Wallace who was played by Bing Crosby in the movie.
A strong performer, Leslie belts out a gorgeous rendition of Blue Skies.
Nathan Flavel, co-founder of the Kelowna Actors Studio, turns on the charm as he takes on the role of ladies’ man Phil Davis, the role made famous by Danny Kaye.
Leslie and Flavel’s version of the Sisters Reprise had the audience in stitches.
Wallace and Davis take in a performance of singing sisters Betty and Judy Haynes, who are booked as the entertainment at a Vermont inn over Christmas and romance ensues.
After following the sisters to Vermont, Wallace and Davis discover the nearly bankrupt lodge at which the sisters were scheduled to perform is owned by their former commander and come up with a plan to help.
Anna Jacyszyn, local jazz singer, plays Betty Haynes. Her powerful voice masters the towering notes and she knocks it out of the park with her performance of Love You Didn’t Do Right by Me.
Betty’s sister Judy is played by Sidney Cummings, a recent graduate of the Canadian College of Performing Arts, making her Kelowna Actors Studio debut.
Jacyszyn and Cummings make a charming pair performing Sisters with their oversized fans.
The Best Things has a dreamy quality to it as fog rolls out while Flavel and Cummings twirl across the stage.
Jason Casey, who just finished playing Ernst Ludwig in the studio’s production of Cabaret, plays General Henry Waverly.
Karen Shale is well cast as busybody Martha Watson, the Generals’ housekeeper.
Fresh-faced Deslyn Bach makes her Kelowna Actors Studio debut as Susan Waverly, the General’s granddaughter who is visiting for Christmas and gets swept up into show business.
Kirk Holland does double duty as Ezekiel, the country bumpkin handyman who came with the barn, getting laughs with his one-word answers and as a Ralph Sheldrake, a producer on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Emily MacArthur and Ashley Kendall appear as chorus girls Rita and Rhoda whose bubbly personalities and costumes have the audience chuckling.
The lavish finale has the full company on stage in beautiful costumes singing perennial favourite White Christmas as snow gently falls in the theatre.
The production delivers singing, dancing, comedy and romance, with the story neatly tied up in a ribbon in the end to leave the audience with a warm feeling.
Kelowna Actors Studios’ sold out production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas runs until Dec. 17. Call Kelowna Tickets to be added to the wait list.