Berlin songs and a wonderfully sappy plot. Based on the
hit 1954 movie of the same name, the 2004 stage adapta-
tion wraps a conventional romantic comedy around a feel-
good story of leadership and loyalty.
When the lights come up, it’s Christmas Eve 1944, and
the beleaguered men of the 151st Division are enjoying a
moment of holiday cheer amid Europe’s wartime chaos.
Two song and dance men, Capt. Bob Wallace (Ward Fair-
bairn) and Cpl. Phil Davis (Eric Blanchard), are singing
Berlin’s 1942 hit “White Christmas” when they’re gruffly
interrupted by Gen. Henry Waverly (Matthew Leach), who
chastises them, tongue in cheek, for being out of uniform,
then notes, sadly, he’s heading back stateside for a medical
retirement.
The next thing we know it’s 1954 in New York. Wallace
and Davis, now a top act on the Ed Sullivan show, encoun-
ter an aspiring sister act, Betty Haynes (Lynnea Barry) and
Judy Haynes (Cyra Conforth). Romantic scheming brings
all four singers to rural Vermont, where they find that a
cardigan-wearing Gen. Waverly owns a winter resort that’s
about to succumb to bad weather and worse management.
All that’s needed to save the general and his inn is a
Christmas performance by Wallace and Davis and a com-
mand reunion of the 151st.
The stage version of White Christmas has challenges.
Who can compete with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye? The
show is not an integrated musical, with songs advancing
the plot. Instead, it’s a back-stage musical revue closer to
42nd Street, with its manic Busby Berkeley energy, than to
Oklahoma!
Never fear. That sheer manic humor blossoms here un-
der direction by Ron Daum and smart choreography by
Caitlin Christopher. Robert Ashens, as music director and
conductor of the live orchestra, doesn’t miss a beat.
Fairbairn’s Capt. Wallace, with the good-natured,
padded-shoulder presence of a Ronald Reagan, offers a
straight man to Blanchard’s wily schemes, and Conforth
and Barry make for a sweet sister act.
A dazzling turn near the show’s end comes from Shel-
don High School freshman Johanna Gilbert, playing Wa-
verly’s granddaughter Susan, when she launches into “Let
Me Sing and I’m Happy.”
Buy yourself a present, and go enjoy some holiday
warmth. — Bob Keefer
Miss Bennet:
Christmas at Pemberley
AT OREG ON CONT EMP ORARY T HEAT RE
T HROUG H DEC. 1 6
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a theater au-
dience desiring a romantic comedy of manners during the
holiday season must be in want of some Jane Austen.
Written with verve and charm by Lauren Gunderson
and Margot Melcon, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley
is a stage adaptation that picks up a few years after the
conclusion of simply everyone’s favorite novel, Pride and
Prejudice.
Set during the holidays at the estate of the dreamy
Darcy (Andrew Black) and his wife, the iconically indomi-
table Lizzie (Melanie Moser), the play focuses not on this
perfectly matched couple but on the sole unmarried (and
unmarriageable?) Bennet sister, the wry and bookish Mary,
played to perfection by Sabrina Gross.
The story recapitulates Austen’s classic, though with
some lovely twists on the themes of burgeoning romance
and its potential thwarting due to class entanglements,
failed communication and personal rivalries — in short,
the trademark stuff of romantic comedy, which Austen all
but invented. The playwrights are keen on upholding the
high-brow humor and embattled politesse of Austen, while
winking slyly to modern audiences, all without losing an
ounce of the smart sexual politics that give the original
such a timeless appeal.
Mary’s lonely but furiously self-contained existence re-
ceives an unexpected gust of turbulence with the arrival of
Arthur (Joseph Workman), a bachelor who’s recently in-
herited an estate of considerable standing. Similarly nerdy,
for lack of a better term, Arthur is intrigued by Mary, with
whom he shares a fondness for scientific treatises and day-
dreams of world travel.
Their courtship is tentative, bashful and completely
sweet. And, of course, it wouldn’t be a bit of Austen-in-
spired fun if it weren’t also complicated, largely by family
ties and untoward obligations. At Pemberley, it takes a vil-
lage to raise a romance: sister Jane (Erica Towe) and her
husband Bingley (Matt Holland), expecting their first child;
the unrepentant flirt Lydia (Janelle Rae), who focuses her
heat on Arthur; and, of course, the devilish Anne (Lindsey
Esch), who single-handedly decides she and Arthur are to
be wed in order to preserve her share of the inheritance.
It’s all so much fun, with just the right combination of
warmth, wit and sensuality. The cast is fantastic, and di-
rector Elizabeth Helman brings Austen’s world alive with
economy, taste and a strong feel for those underlying ten-
sions that can explode in moments of high-brow silliness
or heartwarming woo. And never has a Christmas tree —
inside a manor, no less! — been revealed for the exotic
contrivance it is.
With so much crass commercialization dominating the
yuletide, Oregon Contemporary Theatre’s production of
Miss Bennet gives the holidays back to the holidays, by
finding humanity in the heart of tradition and revealing the
real relationships that can make this time of year a true joy.
— Rick Levin
Don't miss Eugene Weekly's look at local children's theater programs
in our upcoming Dec. 20 issue.
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