A White Christmas
Fab festive offering from the Curve in Leicester
COLOURFUL, characterful and very Christmassy, the Curve theatre’s festive offering has proved to be a big hit with audiences this year.
White Christmas The Musical is a stage version of the famous film which came out in 1954 and starred Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.
And while they put in star performances, the show may well be best known for the Irving Berlin songs including the one which the show takes its title from.
The film has been expertly turned into a musical by the Curve as it is a home-grown Leicester production.
It is very much an oldfashioned style singing and dancing show with the plot really playing second fiddle.
For example, there is even a nice tap-dancing number half-way through which does not add to the story but is just a great piece of live entertainment.
The story is about two members of the army Bob Wallace and Phil Davis who fought, and sang, together during the Second World War.
After the conflict, they become stars of the stage and small screen as famous singers and dancers.
A few years later, they find out their former, much-loved commanding officer needs some help as he has sunk all his savings into a hotel in the mountains which is struggling to survive.
Coming into the festive season in 1954, a lack of snow for Christmas is the final straw for the hotel.
To help their old commander, they decide to put on a TV show at the hotel and invite all of their former colleagues from the army to come along and spend Christmas there.
Woven into the plot is the obligatory love story which, of course, does not run smoothly.
Before going to the hotel, our dynamic dancing duo Bob and Phil meet follow performers the Haynes sisters. One pair fall in love and the other two don’t get on at all.
The sisters are the ones who introduce our boys to the hotel as they have been booked to perform there at Christmas. A Christmas with no snow.
The original film starred Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye who are perhaps two of the screen’s most enigmatic and most loved stars.
It is worth watching for them alone.
So the two leads had a lot to live up to. And they do pull it off.
Danny Mac as Bob Wallace and Dan Burton as Phil Davis recreate the big screen magic with a superb turn using both song and dance very well. But it is their chemistry on stage which makes it so enjoyable.
They are backed up well by the scene-stealing Haynes sisters Emma Williams as Betty and Monique Young as Judy Haynes.
If anything, the stand-out song of the show is probably Sisters rather than White Christmas which is performed by the girls.
This is one of the best stage songs ever written.
And it is almost as good when Bob and Phil re-create it later on.
So expect plenty of colour, festivities and fantastic songs and dancing during what is a very good festive show at the Curve.
And you even get a huge Christmas tree and falling snow thrown in for good measure at the end.
The show is on until January 13.