Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn, the new old-fashioned musical. Though the musical is being touted as the “new Irving Berlin musical,” it borrows heavily from musicals from days of old, like when Mr. Berlin was actually writing new music and musicals. There’s a well-balanced book, by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge, and score (packed with notable Irving Berlin tunes, as well as new dance arrangements by Sam Davis), and the show-within-a-show device is used, as it was in the Bing Crosby-Fred Astaire movie upon which this is based.
I don’t remember the movie well enough to say exactly what’s the same and what isn’t, but the gist is the same. Jim (Bryce Pinkham) and Tom (Corbin Bleu) are an up-and-coming act on vaudeville/club circuit circa 1946. They are joined by Lila Dixon (Megan Sikora), who, at the top of the show, is also Jim’s girlfriend. Just as they are about to get their shot—a call from Hollywood—Jim decides he wants to give up show business and settle down with Lila. He even buys a farm out in Connecticut.

Anyway, Lila ditches Jim for Hollywood, Tom shows up drunk and wants to take Linda as his new dance partner, and Jim has to decide, like Peggy Sawyer, if show business is for him. It’s a simple plot, typical of musical comedies from the 40s, mostly meant to entertain and be the conveyance for songs and dances. Lots of songs and dances.
And by this measure, the new old-fashioned musical is entirely pleasant. It’s fun and fluffy, and has a creamy, sorbet-colored palette that’s pleasing to the eyes. (Scenic design; Anna Louizos; costume design: Alego Vietti; lighting design: Jeff Croiter.) The book feels fresh and modern (I guess that’s the “new” part of the musical), though some of the modernisms come off as a little anachronistic. That’s no bother, though. The repartee between Jim and Linda is engaging, and all the women (Linda, especially), seem plucky and self-sufficient.


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