Irving Berlin's White Christmas: The Musical

by Irving Berlin

Overview

Irving Berlin may have been the best songwriter of the 20th century; he was certainly the best song publisher. Running his own company and promoting his own copyrights, Berlin was an expert at exploitation, finding new ways to sell old songs. One of his best ideas was to come up with, package, and sell to a studio a new movie musical that would feature both newly written material and some of his evergreens. Examples include Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938) and Blue Skies (1946), but Berlin really worked his recycling magic to perfection in 1954, when he managed to get into movie theaters both White Christmas and There's No Business Like Show Business within months of each other, the former in October, the latter in December. White Christmas was a sort of rough sequel to an earlier Berlin film that had employed all-new songs, Holiday Inn (1942). In that picture, Bing Crosby had played a song-and-dance man who runs a New England hotel open only on holidays; Fred Astaire was his sometime partner and rival in romantic matters. Of course, the major hit from the film was "White Christmas." Originally, White Christmas the movie was intended to re-pair Crosby and Astaire as a couple of song-and-dance men who were also World War II veterans in a plot that found them rescuing the fortunes of a New England hotel run by their old general while also wooing two sisters who had their own musical act (an act strongly reminiscent of the disbanded Clooney Sisters, with still-active Rosemary Clooney playing one sister and Vera-Ellen the other). By the time of production, Astaire had been replaced by Donald O'Connor, who had been replaced by Danny Kaye. The result was an enormous hit: White Christmas was by far the highest grossing movie released in 1954, and a Decca Records album featuring Crosby, Kaye, and Peggy Lee (standing in for Clooney, who was exclusively contracted to Columbia Records) hit number two in the charts, with the new songs "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep," "Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me," and "Sisters" gaining the greatest renown among the new Berlin compositions in a score filled out with such oldies-but-goodies as "Blue Skies," "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy," and, inevitably, "White Christmas." Now, fast-forward 46 years. Inspired by Paramount Pictures, owner of the movie, and the Irving Berlin Music Company, owner of the music, the St. Louis Municipal Opera, in the summer of 2000, produced a stage adaptation of White Christmas. The production was not so significant in itself as in the interest it awoke in a Broadway producer, who brought in a creative team led by director Walter Bobbie to revamp it entirely. The idea was not to take the show to Broadway, it was to create a show that could play in cities around the country during the holiday season. And so it did. The new White Christmas (or, as the producer chose to call it, Irving Berlin's White Christmas: The Musical) opened at the Curran Theater in San Francisco in November 2004. It played in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston in 2005. In 2006, it was scheduled to run in Detroit and St. Paul. Although technically it must be considered a studio cast recording, since it is not based on any individual production, this album features all four of the original lead performers from the 2004 San Francisco production, each of them a Broadway veteran: Brian d'Arcy James (Tony Award-nominated for The Sweet Smell of Success) as Bob Wallace, the Crosby role; Jeffry Denman as Phil Davis, the Kaye role; Anastasia Barzee as Betty Haynes, the Clooney role; and Meredith Patterson as Judy Haynes, the Vera-Ellen role. Karen Morrow, in the secondary part of Martha Watson, has a Broadway career dating back to 1964 and was in the St. Louis and Boston productions. As might be expected for a score that was an anthology to begin with, the song selection has been altered from the film, with a number of minor songs ("I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show," "Choreography," "Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army") jettisoned, and a batch of other Berlin hits ("Let Yourself Go," "I Love a Piano," "How Deep Is the Ocean," "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm") interpolated, along with some lesser known tunes from the Berlin catalog ("Love and the Weather," "Falling Out of Love Can Be Fun"). That punches up the album considerably, but it adds to the sense that, as a strictly aural experience, White Christmas isn't much more than a Berlin hits collection sung by some talented singers. A few of the songs, such as "Sisters" and "What Can You Do with a General?," tangentially touch upon the plot, but most are just good songs. They are given fresh arrangements, and they are performed well. (It's notable that the principals make no attempt to sound like the movie stars; James' tenor is nothing like Crosby's baritone, for example.) But as an album, White Christmas never succeeds in being anything more than what it was no doubt intended to be, a musical souvenir that may interest audience members attending one of the many productions of the show. ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	10/17/2006
Label:	Ghostlight / Sh-K-Boom
UPC:	0791558122527
Rank:	141343

Tracks

1. Overture
2. Happy Holidays Let Yourself Go
3. Love and the Weather
4. Sisters
5. The Best Things Happen
6. When You're Dancing
7. Snow
8. What Can You Do With a General?
9. Let Me Sing and I'm Happy
10. Count Your Blessings
11. Blue Skies
12. I Love a Piano
13. Falling Out of Love
14. Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me/ How Deep Is the Ocean?
15. The Old Man
16. White Christmas
17. I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
18. White Christmas, musical play (after the film)~I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Irving Berlin   Primary Artist
Jennifer Prescott   Primary Artist,Vocals
Meredith Patterson   Primary Artist,Vocals
Jeffry Denman   Primary Artist,Vocals
Wendy James   Primary Artist,Vocals,Ensemble
Cliff Bemis   Primary Artist,Vocals,Ensemble
Karen Morrow   Primary Artist,Vocals
Brian d'Arcy James   Primary Artist,Vocals
The Orchestra   Primary Artist
Anastasia Barzee   Primary Artist,Vocals
John Anderson   Cor Anglais,Oboe
Simon Baggs   Violin
Melissa Phelps   Cello
White Christmas Orchestra   Orchestra
Randy Skinner   Vocals
James McLeod   Violin
Shannon O'Bryan   Vocals
Katie Kerwin   Vocals
Julie Andrews   Bassoon
Kristen Beth Williams   Vocals
Melissa Mahon   Vocals
Brent McBeth   Vocals
Kevin Worley   Vocals
Jennifer Mathie   Vocals
Stefanie Morse   Vocals
Dave Bishop   Clarinet,Sax (Tenor),Clarinet (Bass)
Steve McManus   Bass (Acoustic)
Andy Panayi   Flute,Clarinet,Sax (Alto)
Kelli Barclay   Vocals
Rob Berman   Conductor,Music Direction
Manon Derome   Violin
Phillip Attmore   Vocals,Ensemble
Mark Ledbetter   Vocals
Rolf Wilson   Violin,Orchestra Leader
Drew Humphrey   Vocals
Pilar Milhollen   Vocals
Kristie Kerwin   Vocals
Jonathan Evans-Jones   Violin
Vincent III Rodriguez   Vocals
James Patterson   Vocals,Ensemble
Sara Brians   Vocals
Jeremy Benton   Vocals,Ensemble
Philip Todd   Sax (Alto),Flute,Piccolo,Clarinet
Simon Gardner   Trumpet
Tim Federle   Vocals
Richard Bissill   French Horn
Jonathan Williams   Cello
Beth Crosby   Vocals
Martin Loveday   Cello
Rita Manning   Violin
Skaila Kanga   Harp
Paul Kegg   Cello
Natalia Bonner   Violin
David Hartley   Piano,Celeste,Toy Piano
Walter Bobbie   Director
Mark Nightingale   Trombone
Derek Watkins   Trumpet
Robin Campbell   Vocals,Ensemble
Colin Sheen   Trombone
John Barclay   Trumpet
Andy Wood   Trombone (Bass)
Ian Humphries   Violin
Frank Ricotti   Percussion
Roger Garland   Violin
Jamie Talbot   Clarinet,Sax (Tenor)

Technical Credits

Anika Chapin   Synopsis,Plot Synopsis
Steve Norman   Associate Producer
Sam "Stovepipe No. 1" Jones   Studio Assistant
Ted Chapin   Executive Producer
Chris Allen   Assistant Engineer
Sam Jones   Studio Assistant
Anna Louizos   Set Design
David Allen   Photography
Ethan Donaldson   Assistant Engineer
Olga Fitzroy   Assistant Engineer
Larry Blank   Orchestration
Kelli Barclay   Dance
Paul Holderbaum   Music Copyist
Theodore S. Chapin   Liner Notes
Rob Berman   Producer
Meredith Patterson   Dance,Performer
Carrie Robbins   Costume Design
Jeffry Denman   Dance,Performer
David Ives   Book
Anastasia Barzee   Performer
Zan Sabini   Production Assistant
Marc Bruni   Associate Director
Paul Blake   Book
Tim Federle   Dance
Jay Binder   Casting
Sara Brians   Dance
Wayne Blood   Music Librarian
Kevin McCollum   Executive Producer
Ken Billington   Lighting Design
Tom Gloadly   Assistant Engineer
Bruce Pomahac   Arranger,Dance Arrangement,Vocal Arrangement
Kurt Deutsch   Executive Producer
Irving Berlin   Composer,Lyricist,Songwriter
Joel Moss   Mixing,Editing,Engineer,Producer,Recording
Jan Folkson   Engineer,Recording
Karen Morrow   Performer
Scott Hull   Mastering
Isobel Griffiths   Orchestra Contractor
Brian Lynch   Technical Supervisor
Noah Cornman   Associate Producer
Tom Gloady   Assistant Engineer
Roger Garland   Leader
Richard Feldman   Photography