- Overture
- Happy Holidays Let Yourself Go
- Love and the Weather
- Sisters
- The Best Things Happen
- When You're Dancing
- Snow
- What Can You Do With a General?
- Let Me Sing and I'm Happy
- Count Your Blessings
- Blue Skies
- I Love a Piano
- Falling Out of Love
- Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me/ How Deep Is the Ocean?
- The Old Man
- White Christmas
- I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm
- White Christmas, musical play (after the film)~I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
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0791558122527
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)
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
Irving Berlin's White Christmas: The Musical
by Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin's White Christmas: The Musical
by Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
CD
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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: | 139424 |
Tracks
Album Credits
Performance Credits
Irving Berlin Primary ArtistJennifer 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 SynopsisSteve 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
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