Irving Berlin’s ‘Holiday Inn’ Sleighs ‘Em In Times Square; Judith Light’s Transparent Scandal: Reviews
Holiday Inn sets the Broadway musical back 75 years. I doubt anyone will be complaining.
An exuberant, shamelessly old-fashioned tap-and-tuner presented by the Roundabout Theatre Company at its Studio 54 theater, this adaptation of the 1942 Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire Paramount film is an endorphin assault, inducing warm-bath pleasure like no other show since 42nd Street. The dancing is spectacular, the singing sublime, the visuals are ingenious and, almost incidentally, there’s the cataract of Irving Berlin songs that includes his sole Oscar winner, “White Christmas.”
As with recent archaeological digs into the Gershwin canon (Crazy For You, Nice Work If You Can Get It), fidelity to the source material is a non-starter. With 1,500 songs in the Berlin catalogue to choose from, the new show’s adapters Gordon Greenberg (who also directs) and Chad Hodge have augmented the film score with a basketful of chestnuts including “Blue Skies,” “Heat Wave,” “It’s A Lovely Day Today” and “Cheek To Cheek.”
