‘Holiday Inn’ is fun Christmas trifle
This stage version of the Irving Berlin chestnut is even fluffier than the 1942 movie
If you want something challenging this Christmas, try putting together that cabinet you just bought at Ikea. Try not to cringe at the Mariah Carey song all day, every day. Try to avoid talking politics at Christmas Eve dinner.
Theatre companies know you’re dealing with enough, so their Christmas shows usually come in two flavours: Sweet and forgettable.
And as the Shaw Festival’s sugary production of “Holiday Inn” proves, there’s nothing wrong with that. Summer is for the serious stuff. At Christmas, artistic director Tim Carroll wants the company to be part of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s old-fashioned holidays. Like the ones he used to know, so to speak.
If anything, this stage version of the Irving Berlin chestnut — which debuted on Broadway in 2016 — is even fluffier than the 1942 movie. Which itself was a warm security blanket for American audiences in the midst of the Second World War.
For the Shaw production that opened Saturday night, director Kate Hennig is all-in on the shmaltz, embracing its 1940s candy coating without a hint of modern tinkering. It thrives on nostalgia and the era of black and white Christmas movies in front of the fire.
Like an eager puppy, it only wants to please. And even if you wish something more substantial was going on, you can’t begrudge the show’s simple, sweet charm. Sappy, story, sappier songs, but hey — ’tis the season.
The story is a simplified version of the movie which starred Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, but make no
mistake — it’s only remembered for introducing “White Christmas” to the world. It’s pretty much the only reason this is regarded as a ‘Christmas’ movie, even though it takes place over several other holidays.
For the Shaw production, Kyle Blair and Kyle Golemba fill the Crosby and Astaire roles as two showmen going in different directions. Jim (Blair) wants to pack it in and move to a Connecticut farm he just bought, but Ted (Golemba) wants to keep the show going after they’re offered a six-week tour. Ted’s fiancée Lila (Kimberley Rampsersad), who also performs in the show, decides on the tour over farm living, leaving Jim on his own.
Once he moves in Jim quickly realizes he’s in over his head, even with the help of the farm’s previous owner Linda Mason (Kristi Frank), who lost it in foreclosure, and spunky farmhand Louise (a scene-stealing Jenny L. Wright), who offers to work for room and board.
To save the farm, Jim reluctantly agrees to turn the inn into a performance hall that caters to holiday shows. Things get convoluted when Ted returns from the disastrous tour, and immediately eyes Linda as his new dance partner to take to Hollywood.
As always with these hokey relics, the story hangs on misunderstandings and cornball romance. But no one is going to see “Holiday Inn” for its deep plot — this is all about the musical numbers, which Hennig and music director Paul Sportelli
thrive on. Musical tributes to Easter and Independence Day are colourful and high-energy. The stage show wisely drops the film’s infamous blackface sequence (which was bizarre even in 1942), while adding Irving Berlin classics like “Heat Wave” and “Blue Skies” to the set list.
It is all by the book and sweetness overload, and that’s all some shows aim for at Christmas. More importantly, the Shaw is now doing two Christmas shows every year, with this being the first at the Festival Theatre. As executive director Tim Jennings said while introducing the show, there is now a “Christmas season” at Shaw.
We are also one step closer to the Shaw Festival operating year-round. There are now only three months without plays going on.
If they can find something that’ll fly from January to March, more than the treetops will glisten.
As always with these hokey relics, the story hangs on misunderstandings and cornball romance. But no one is going to see “Holiday Inn” for its deep plot