| Irving
Berlin’s Holiday Inn
Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by Gordon
Greenberg & Chad Hodge, directed by Gordon Greenberg, choreographed
by Denis Jones.
Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St., New York City
212-541-8457, http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/Shows-Events/Holiday-Inn.aspx
Opened Oct 6, 2016; closes Jan 15, 2017.
Reviewed by Lucy Komisar Oct 15, 2016.
It’s light fluff, but if you love 40s music, as I do, just
forget the silly plot. Besides, the production and the actors are
charming. And there is 40s scat. Also jazzy music, dance kicks, swing
and tap. The show is based on a 1942 movie, but a lot of the songs
have been added.
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| Corbin Bleu as Ted, Megan Sikora as Lila. Photo
by Joan Marcus. |
They are Irving Berlin classics: “Steppin’ Out with My
Baby,” “Blue Skies,” “Heat Wave,” “It’s
a Lovely Day Today,” “Shaking the Blues Away,” “Let’s
Take an Old-fashioned Walk,” “Be Careful, It’s My
Heart,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Easter Parade,”
(how did that get in a Christmas show?) and of course the favorite
Jewish Christmas carol, “White Christmas.” Thank you,
Irving. All the songs move the story.
So to deal with the story by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge, which
has been moved forward to post-war 1946-7. Rather hokey, with New
York accents. Bryce Pinkham, a great baritone with charm, plays Jim
Hardy who is giving up show biz to move to Connecticut and take “life”
out of the storage boxes. Girlfriend Lila (Megan Sikora) will stay
on the stage, even gets a bid to Chicago’s Pump Room. She’s
pretty good, as you see her with dancer Ted Hanover (Corbin Bleu)
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| Corbin Bleu as Ted, Lora Lee Gayer as Linda,
Bryce Pinkham as Jim. Photo by Joan Marcus |
Back at the farm Jim is failing at farming. Though he has met a sweet
school teacher, Linda (Lora Lee Gayer). But Lila and her show biz
friends save the day. The performers will come to the farm on holidays
and put on shows the locals will pay for. (Connecticut locals love
the theater, right?)
A highlight is Louise, played in the performance I saw by the excellent
understudy Jenifer Foote as a Latin dancer who goes only as far south
as the South. Foote is terrific in her red hair and glittery dress
doing “Heat Wave” with a voice like a horn and backed
up by a troop of equally glittery dancers.
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Corbin Bleu as Ted, Lora Lee Gayer as Linda,
Bryce Pinkham as Jim, and company. Photo by Joan Marcus.
|
Ted Hanover (Corbin Bleu) also has lots of charm as he hoofs and proves
“I’m easy to dance with.” Denis Jones’ choreography
and Greenberg’s direction make you twist and smile.
OK, it’s hokey, not great theater, but a lot of fun. Love the
40s!
Visit Lucy’s website
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Holiday Inn
BRINGING THE PAST INTO THE PRESENT
Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by Gordon
Greenberg & Chad Hodge, directed by Gordon Greenberg, choreographed
by Denis Jones.
Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St., New York City
212-541-8457, http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/Shows-Events/Holiday-Inn.aspx
Opened Oct 6, 2016; closes Jan 15, 2017.
Reviewed by Edward Rubin Oct 09, 2016.
The Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of
Holiday Inn, The New Irving Berlin Musical, currently playing at Studio
54 through January 1, 2017, first showed its lyrical face at Connecticut’s
Goodspeed Opera House where it had its world premier during the holiday
season in 2014. With a book co-written by Chad Hodge and Gordon Greenberg
(he is also the director), Holiday Inn, stuffed with 22 Irving Berlin
songs, some standards, others resurrected from the dead, is back on
the boards again. Other than Radio City Music Hall’s yearly
Christmas spectacular, it is the only major holiday themed production
in New York City whose specific marketing goal is to brighten The
Great White Way during the Holidaze Season.
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Corbin Bleu as Ted, Lora Lee Gayer as Linda,
Bryce Pinkham as Jim, and company. Photo by Joan Marcus.
|
The story, for the most part, lifted lock, stock and
barrel from the movie - a kind of genre all to itself - rings familiar.
So familiar that even for those who have not seen the movie the ending
is easily divined before it even happens. Not that this is necessarily
a bad thing, but here, with a lighter than light, patter-filled script
that merely sketches each character – depth is not exactly the
book’s forte - the poor, put upon actors, not that they are
complaining, as they are doing what they love, are forced to do double-duty
in order to breath life into a rather flat production. Mercifully,
choreographer Denis Jones manages to throw in a goodly, or is it a
godly spate of rousing dance numbers whenever things seem to drag.
For those who have forgotten and those who are virgins to the plot
it goes like this. Jim Hardy (Bryce Pinkham), a successful singer
song writer is tired of his show biz life and wants to retire to the
country and take up farming. Lila Dixon (Megan Sikora), Jim’s
girlfriend, the musical’s ambitious in-house spitfire, as well
as the other half of their nightclub act has serious reservations.
A country girl she’s not. Unbeknownst to Lila, Jim has secretly
purchased an old farmhouse in the country. His hope is to marry Lila
and live happily ever after in the country.
As things progress Danny (Lee Wilkof), the duo’s loud mouthed,
in your face, agent – you know the type - appears with a hard
to turn down offer for Jim and Lila to perform their act at Chicago’s
classy Pump Room. Added to the stew, who just happens to be in town
is trouble, Jim’s old friend and fellow hoofer, the very flirtatious
with anything that has two legs and a couple of boobs, Ted Hanover
(Corbin Bleu). Newly written into the story, no doubt to amp up the
humor quotient which she does quite well is Louise Badger (Megan Lawrence)
a zany to the hilt, can-do country neighbor who can milk a cow, handle
a tractor, and gives good advice.
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| Corbin Bleu as Ted, Megan Sikora as Lila. Photo
by Joan Marcus. |
Introducing a bit of mystery, as well as romance into the cauldron
is a local teacher Linda Mason (Lori Lee Gayer), a pretty girl next
door type who once lived in Jim’s farmhouse and no surprise
here when younger aspired to be a performer. Lastly, is Charlie (Morgan
Gao) a totally stone-faced pre-teen local Chinese boy who appears
at all the wrong times with bank papers informing Jim of his impending
financial disaster.
Showing up just in the nick of time – conjuring up shades of
the old Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney movies where no barn is safe –
are a wildly energetic bunch of Jim’s fellow thespians who proceed
to convince him that in order not to lose his home he should to turn
his farmhouse into a money-making theatre during national holidays.
This leads to Berlin’s songs, each covering a different holiday.
The obvious biggies are White Christmas, Happy Holiday, and Easter
Parade, followed by a string of Berlin’s lesser known songs.
For Thanksgiving we get Plenty to Be Thankful For. Let’s Start
the New Year Right ushers in the New Year. Valentine’s Day is
celebrated with Be Careful It’s My Heart. The New Year’s
begins with Let’s Say it With Firecrackers, while Washington’s
Birthday brings us I Cannot Tell a Lie. While a few of these lesser
known tunes are lovely, it is Berlin’s most iconic songs, Blue
Skies, Cheek to Cheek, Shaking the Blues Away, and Heat Wave, the
latter two being accompanied by the show’s two major dance numbers,
that command our fullest attention.
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