Review: White Christmas by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
The Zach Theatre throws everything it's got at White Christmas, and it shows. Nick Demos' inventive choreography is on display; Allen Robertson conducts a vigorous nine-piece orchestra tucked out of sight beneath the stage; invited stars Matthew Redden and Matt Gibson make a plausible buddy team, even though they don't much resemble Bing and Donald. Our Meredith McCall is there as the older, wiser and more angular of the hoofin' Haynes Sisters nightclub act, and the fifteen-person chorus includes such accomplished local talent as Joshua Denning and Sara Burke.
Zach Theatre prides itself on the valiantly earned status as a significant regional theatre. Earning those stripes and getting the awesome 425-seat Topfer Theatre built have taken decades of planning and work. But now Artistic Director Dave Steakley faces a new challenge -- the company has got that impressive magic box on South Lamar but how are they going to get enough rears onto those seats in order to make sure that it's a viable concern?
One approach is to dust off the standards and make them new. Harvey, the one about the six-foot invisible white rabbit, is on the roster for late spring. Yes, in fact, it was a play before it was a movie.
And here we have a real live version of Irving Berlin's 1954 film, a nostalgia vehicle even back then, firmly grounded on the 1930's and 1940's cinema musicals themed as "Come on, kids, let's put on a show!" offering Depression-era escapist visions of the glamor of New York nightclubs. Both the leading buddies and the sister act are show-biz entertainers, fetched away by chance and misdirection to the failing Vermont inn that good ol' General Henry Waverly sank his army savings and pension into. By gosh, they decide to support the Old Man by putting on a show in the barn and inviting all of their war-time buddies and their families. As a surprise to the General, of course. And don't forget that sure-fire formula "Boy gets girl; boy loses girl; boy gets girl again (oh, it was all just a misunderstanding)."
Instead of recreating for the Austin market recent hits from New York and other successful theatre mills, the Zach is now following in the footsteps of the New Braunfels Theatre Company (2010), the Way Off Broadway Community Players of Leander (2010) and Cedar Park High School (2009).
Well, the holidays are a time for nostalgia, and we don't take it particularly amiss when handsome protagonist Matthew Redden leads us in a Christmas sing-song in the second act. But these were cardboard characters even when Irving Berlin was writing the music for them. General Waverly won those men's devotion with his fatherly attention to them in 1944 Europe, even single-handedly pulling a soldier from a flaming jeep and carrying him to safety. TheVermont inn is administered by (ex-Sergeant) Martha Watson, a loud former vaudevillian with a heart of gold who puts up with Harvey Guion's befuddled ways and painfully clueless adherence to the old Army jargon Barbara A. Schoenhofer is a lot of fun in that role, by the way, with the zing of a Martha Raye or a Carol Burnett, and she lays out every bit of ham to be found for miles around. Matt Gibson as second banana Phil Davis is constantly drooling over dimwit showgirls Rita and Roda, but he's brought back to the right path by kissy-face and fine tap-dancing with Elizabeth Koepp as the junior Haynes sister.
In thoroughly stereotyped but amusing bits -- reminiscent of vaudeville -- Brian Coughlin is the short-spoken New England handyman Ezekiel and Tyler Jones is the harried stage manager arranging the sentimental epic that will unroll in the barn.
Costumes? Check - Deborah Roberts. Set? Check - a mobile extravaganza by Cliff Simon. Dance by Demos, no problems there either with the choreography or with the razzle-dazzle-'em of the cast (one of the few things missing and unfortunately not possible is a 90-degree tilt of the Karen Kuykendal Stage to show us Busby-Berkeley-style human kaleidoscopes).
So here's your choice: the Zach Theatre production as Christmas comfort food, done with energy and not a trace of irony (yes, there are snowflakes swirling down for the finale) or a copy of the 1954 movie watched from your couch. In case it makes a difference -- the film was done in Technicolor. And it has Bing Crosby and Donald O'Connor.
Comments by Cate Blouke for the Stateman's Austin360 Seeing Things blog, December 17 (431 words)
Brief feature by Mikela Floyd for www.austin.culturemap.com, December 18
EXTRA
Click to view excerpts from the program for Zach's White Christmas
Hits as of 2015 03 01: 3826
White Christmas
by David Ives, Paul Blake, music and lyrics by Irving Berlin.Irving Berlin
Zach Theatre
