holiday inn

Choreographer Denis Jones is the star player of the production, keeping things playful by finding dance opportunities with wheelbarrows, firecrackers and Christmas garlands — and nearly stopping the show with the exuberant “Shaking the Blues Away,” which evokes the best of MGM musicals.

Denis Jones' consistently inventive choreography for these and other numbers provides the large ensemble cast plenty of opportunities to strut their stuff.

Above all, Denis Jones (Honeymoon In Vegas) deploys a smallish troupe of dazzling hoofers with a perfect mix of precision (enforced) and abandon (brilliantly faked, no doubt).

Director/choreographer Denis Jones re-creates his original Broadway staging for Marriott’s in-the-round configuration with brio and wit. In particular, “Shaking the Blues Away,” in which all manner of holiday paraphernalia gets put to creative choreographic use (including strands of Christmas lights used as jump ropes) is exhilarating.

Directed and superbly choreographed by Denis James, this show is filled with great music: “Blue Skies”, “Heat Wave”, , “Marching Along With Time”, “Let’s Take An Old Fashioned Walk”, “Cheek To Cheek”, and of course “White Christmas”. This is just a sampling of the powerful score. There is a number in the second act, “Let’s Say It With Firecrackers”/ Song of Freedom” that will knock your sox off! It is a show-stopper .