It is safe to assume that there is always a little trepidation, some anxiety and perhaps even worry that a stage adaptation of a modest classic film musical will run the risk of being not only patently quaint but also seriously out-of-touch with life as we know it. Put aside your fears as the 1942 film musical “Holiday Inn,” with its wondrously melodic score by Irving Berlin, has been beautifully restored/re-envisioned by director Gordon Greenberg and co-writer Chad Hodge for the Roundabout Theatre Company. To be sure, there is a quaintness to the basic and barely credible story that has been updated to post World War II. But there are just enough infusions and inferences with a contemporary resonance that will appeal to young audiences who may not be bringing along the nostalgia that will inevitably come with older audience members.
The plot follows the travails of singer Jim (Bryce Pinkham) after he has a parting of the ways with dancer Ted (Corbin Bleu) his b.f. and professional partner. Jim decides to give up showbiz for a less stressful life buying and maintaining a working farm (really?). So what is a smart but desperate guy to do when the crops fail and the mortgage is due? Of course, he turns to his terping and chirping Broadway pals for help in transforming the dilapidated homestead into a snazzy retreat with entertainment....but only on the holidays (really?) Jim gets a little help and more than a little romance from former farm owner and school teacher Linda (Lora Lee Gayer) whose former aspirations of a career in the theater are suddenly re-kindled.
Pinkham sings beautifully and is again displaying the disarming and attractive qualities that made us root for him in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Bleu is a real find for those of us who don’t know him from “High School Musical” and “Dancing with the Stars.” As the sweetly rakish Ted, Bleu rips up the stage with his exuberantly stylish dancing to “You’re Easy to Dance With” and literally creating fireworks with “Let’s Say it with Fireworks.” The absolutely beguiling, multi-talented Gayer is a delight as Linda. Her silvery soprano and lovely presence is deftly deployed in song and dance throughout the show.
The best part of this sunny, feel-good show is the abundance of tuneful Berlin songs, some of which are not in the original film. “Easter Parade,” “Happy Holiday,” and “White Christmas” are now joined by “Blue Skies,” “Heat Wave,” “Shaking the Blues Away,” “It’s a Lovely Day Today” and more treasures from the Berlin songbook.
With all those great songs, also be prepared for some great and inventive dancing. Choreographer Denis Jones is full of surprises using an assortment props and special effects (they should be surprises) that bring to mind some of the imaginative dance numbers created by filmdom’s Busby Berkeley. It won’t be long into the show before you are shaking your blues away with a splendid cast that has captured the era, the time, and place with the same panache as has set designer Anna Louizos and costume designer Alejo Vietti. . .oh, those Easter bonnets!
Standout among the supporting cast are Megan Lawrence as the smart-alecky resident handywoman, Megan Sikora as Ted’s sassy and brassy blonde fiance and dancing partner, and the terrific young Morgan Gao, who is making his Broadway debut as the delivery boy. But it’s director Greenberg and choreographer Jones who have delivered the real goods. Holiday Inn is undoubtedly the most gloriously gift-wrapped holiday treat on Broadway.
