A White Christmas

Melanie Barillas

Period 6 Dance

I watched Irving Berlin's White Christmas the musical. White Christmas is a1954 American musical film, this play was preformed at the Norris Theater and I watched it on December 16,2012. The main people starring in the play are; Gail Bennet who played Betty Haynes, David Lamoureux who played Phil Davis, Brent Schindele who played Bob Wallace, and Tro Shaw who played Judy Haynes. The play was based upon the Paramount Pictures film that was written for the screen by Norman Krasna, Norman Panama and Melvin Frank. Irving Berlin's White Christmas was an original stage production originally directed by Walter Bobbie. The company was featuring Polly Seale who was played Martha Watson. I thought that Juliette Boland, the girl playing Susan Waverly in the production, was a unique part of the play because she was very young compared to the whole cast and she was very talented as she constantly sang in front of the whole audience and being very enthusiastic.
The story starts out with Bob Wallace and Phil Davis leaving the army and teaming up to become a top song and dance act. Phil Davis acts as a matchmaker for Wallace and introduces to a pair of sisters whose names are Betty and Judy who also do a song and dance act. Betty and Judy go to Vermont to preform a Christmas show , while Phil and Bob follow. When they arrive to the lodge they find their former commander General Waverly. They see that General Waverly has sunk his savings and he is on the verge of bankruptcy. They come up with a plan to help the General out, but a misunderstanding between Bob and Betty leaves it to Phil and Judy to try and get them back together. A theatrical element that I noticed in the play was that the audience was very intrigued with the play because the play was constantly adding new dances and adding various music. Another thing that i noticed about the audience was that they were very interested about the story of the play. Another theatrical element that i saw in the play was the tap dancing. The tap dancing was fabulous because it was interesting to watch and it was also fun to see because I could tell most of the tap moves. It really added some fun to the production. The last theatrical element that i noticed was the singing. The singing really added to the dancing too because it was mesmerizing how thee dancers could all be in sync in their dancing and sing along in harmony perfectly. The choreographers intent was defiantly to have a happy mood during most of the production but there is most definitely some sad parts. My reaction to the production was good because I enjoyed the singing and dancing also adding the little plot twists. I really enjoyed the production because I really enjoy dancing and singing. I usually don't go to plays so I just happened to go to this one and it was amazing, the fact that it had a lot of tap and dancing just made it really interesting for me and I did enjoy that. I would definitely recommend this production to someone who enjoys dancing, singing, and musicals.