I'm dreaming of a White Christmas...

Last night I went to see the musical adaptation (for once, the movie came first) of White Christmas playing at the 5th Avenue Theatre. I took my sister Amy with me, mainly because she has seen the movie probably 124 times, and besides the complete song montage she sang while we were waiting for the show to start, it wasn't too bad. :)

As for the musical, an excellent performance. Most of the cast was outstanding... the chorus was excellent, the leads were entertaining, with the possible disappointment of the actress who played Judy Haynes, who did not impress me at all. Not bad in general or vocally, but she was a bit sloppy on the dance numbers which really stood out next to the outstanding performance of the rest of the ensemble.

I have to avoid trying to compare this production to the movie, because the movie is an American classic, to which there just is no comparison. Though in short, as in any adaptation, various changes had to be made, in this case some of the minor subplots and edges were rearranged or changed to be more usable on the stage rather than the screen. But the overall story remained intact.

On the technical aspects, the sets were impressive. The orchestra was outstanding. Breaking down the rating:

Cast: 4 stars - no Bing Crosby, but who is?
Script: 3 stars - too used to the movie, hard to handle many changes.
Technical: 5 stars - great sets and lighting and everything else.
Music: 4 stars - All the classic songs, with a great orchestra to back it up.

Overall Rating: 4 stars. I'd see it again... actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Nothing really to complain about here... more than that, lots of good things about it. A holiday classic worth seeing. I can't give it 5 stars though, because I've seen better.