Arts Club

White Christmas: The Musical
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
Book by David Ives and Paul Blake
Based upon the Paramount Pictures film written for the screen
by Norman Krasna, Norman Panama, and Melvin Frank
Director Bill Millerd.
Musical Director Bruce Kellett. Choreographer Valerie Easton.
Arts Club Theatre Company
Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
Nov 12  to  Dec 27, 2009

Vancouver, BC: As those of you  who have followed my recent  theatre travels and cruise adventures dancing at sea to destinations from Bora Bora to Beijing to  Los Angeles to New York, know by now, I am delirious about dance, so how could I not love a show with a song titled "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing"?  Add some rapid-fire tap dancing, great ensemble work and music and lyrics that are embedded  in my memory bank from years back, and White Christmas makes for a delightfully sentimental evening's entertainment.

Irving Berlin wrote the song “White Christmas” for the 1942 movie Holiday Inn. Sung by Bing Crosby,  it won the Academy Award that year and  was later used in  the 1954 film version of  White Christmas. In today's lingo it  went viral and today there can't be a person over the age of 1 anywhere in the world who does not know this song. Following the more recent cross-genre trend of going from film to musical (like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) rather than the previously more usual  musical to film, the musical version of  White Christmas was first produced in San Francisco in 2004. But it still retains its 1950s feel.

The story opens on Christmas Eve 1944 somewhere in Europe where two  US army soldiers, former Broadway entertainer, the reserved Captain Bob Wallace (Jeffrey Victor)  and extrovert philanderer, Phil Davis (Todd Talbot)  are putting on a show for the troops. Their respected General Henry Waverley (Rejean Cournoyer) is returning to the US for treatment of an injury.

Fast forward ten years. Wallace and Davis are now a successful entertainment act and they encounter the performing Haynes sisters, reserved Betty (Sara-Jeanne Hosie) and extrovert Judy (Monique Lund).  Phil and  Judy hit it off instantly, but  Bob and Betty - well, there has to be a down arc to the story for it all to be resolved happily in the end. 

Aided by various acts of "larceny'" they all land up at the inn in Vermont that just happens to be owned by the retired General Waverley, who is being visited by his young niece from California, Susan (Rachael Withers). Business at the inn is down, but the feisty manager, Martha Watson (Susan Anderson) is not letting the general know just how bad things are. Wallace and Davis decide to help out their general, but busybody Martha gets involved and things start to unravel.  But it is Christmas so of course all ends well.

Altar Boyz directed by Bill Millerd
Book by Kevin Del Aguila
Music and lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker
Conceived by Marc Kessler and Ken Davenport
Musical Director Sasha Niechoda
Choreographer Sara-Jeanne Hosie
Granville Island Stage
Arts Club Company
 June 18 to August 1st, 2009

Vancouver, BC: Matthew  (Jeremy Crittenden),  Mark  (David Hurwitz),  Luke (Jak Barradell),  Juan (Vincent Tong) and Abraham (Geoff Stevens) are the Altar Boyz, members of a boy band who are playing the final concert of their "Raise the Praise"  tour - at the Granville Island Stage - and, according to their impressive digital electronic device, the  Soul-Sensor DX-12,   they have several hundred heavily burdened souls in the audience to save, by the end of the concert. That's the premise of the show.  A thin story-line to be sure, but that is all that is needed to thread twelve high-energy  song and dance routines into a swinging, toe-tapping non-stop 90 minutes of  pure entertainment.

Nicola Lipman and John Mann in Les Misérables. Photo by Emily CooperLes Misérables  by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg based on the novel by Victor Hugo
Music by Schönberg   Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer
Directed by Bill Millerd  Musical Direction Bruce Kellett  Choreography Valerie Easton
Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
Arts Club Theatre Company
May 14 to July 19 , 2009

Vancouver, BC: How can one not love Les Mis? The book  has everything - Sympathetic downtrodden characters who  either  triumph over adversity or die tragically with their dreams unfulfilled; a good guy chasing a bad guy  where the bad guy is really good at heart and the good guy 's obsession with his quest is bad;  student protests with dramatic deaths on barricades, and of course, the wickedly funny  innkeeper and his wife. Then there is the music - songs to make you cry, songs to make you laugh, catchy melodies that tumble over each other for a place in your head; and that you hum as you drive home after the show.  I first saw a touring production of Les Misérables in Vancouver probably twenty years ago  and still remember the intense post-show  family discussion about the students sacrificing their lives in a futile cause.