WHITE CHRISTMAS - REVIEW OF 2025 SHAW FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Shaw Festival continues with its laudable holiday season. This year it is again mounting the perennial favorites, A Christmas Carol, and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. Yes, the one based on the 1954 movie with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.

White Christmas gets a wonderful production and what follows is a rave review. It is justified by the delightful performances, the production values, the gorgeous costumes and, yes, the great idea of giving us an old-style Christmas musical that is fearlessly sentimental, funny and a throwback to a different world.

Bob Wallace (Jeff Irving) and Phil Davis (Kevin McLachlan), the song-and-dance duo, were in the U.S. army in Germany in December 1944 under the command of  the very popular General Waverly (David Keeley). Ten years later they meet the two-sister act of Betty (Camille Eanga-Selenge) and Judy Haynes (Mary Antonini). They are the sisters of an army buddy who asked them to have a look at their act. Phil and Betty are seriously attracted to each other and Davis decides to follow the two of them  to a gig in Vermont. He bamboozles Bob into going to Vermont unknowingly. The soldiers find their general running an inn and on the verge of bankruptcy.

They decide to call up their 151^st regiment to the general’s inn in Vermont to help him out.The whole thing works out and we get a happy ending. I told you it is sentimental.

Berlin wrote some wonderful songs for the movie and plenty of them. White Christmas starts with “Happy Holiday” in 1944 and continues with the signature carol “White Christmas”: that sets the tone for the season and the musical. Betty and Judy sing the melodic “Sisters” and we hear and agree with the sentiment that “The Best Things Happen While You Are Dancing” sung by Phil, Judy and the ensemble, and the beautiful “Snow” sung by all. 

Jeff Irving as Bob Wallace with the cast of White Christmas. 
Photo by Michael Cooper.

We hear from Martha (Jenni Burke), the nosey, boisterous, stentorian and hilarious  manager of the hotel who thinks she is Ethel Merman and Kate Smith rolled into one. Pure comic relief. And there is the young Susan Waverly (Celine Jung) who sings and steals scenes. Tap dancing went out of style a long time ago, but in this production, it is a center piece of talented dancers and entertainment. Allison Plamondon is the choreographer.

Judith Bowden is the sets and costumes designer and she delivers superb sets and an array of costumes that are not only beautiful but also striking in their number and frequency of changes. I found the numerous sets and almost innumerable costumes dazzling.

I counted almost thirty people on stage, many taking several roles, singing, dancing and providing comic acting. That is a lot of people but not as many as necessary in some scenes. When General Waverly greets the men of the  151^st regiment there are only three men on stage. He speaks to the audience as if the entire regiment showed up.  

Paul Sportelli conducted the orchestra and Kate Hennig directed the production without missing a beat and Allison Plamondon did the choreography. One should not underestimate their contribution. With the amount of activity demanded by the production, from acting, to singing, to tapdancing, it is a complex undertaking that we may take for granted. It is an extremely difficult undertaking and these artists deserve and get a standing ovation.

But watching an entertaining, sentimental and wonderful musical at this time of the years is terrific and if all is not enough, remember the title of the final song: “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm.”
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White Christmas  by Irving Berlin (words and music), David Ives and Paul Blake (book)  continues until December 21, 2025, at the Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The  Greek Press, Toronto