Based on the 1954 movie, White Christmas, this musical theater production captures the essence of the film, but veers away here and there to give it its own character. It is still set in the early 1950s, still has two male leads who come to the aid of their commanding general fallen on hard times, and two sisters who become romantically linked with these two song-and-dance men, and brings everyone together at a Vermont inn at Christmastime. The theatrical production, however, features more tunes than the movie, and leaves out a few that have a touchy connotation today.

The production has a large cast, a third of which are Canadian. The lead male, Graham Rowat (Bob Wallace) hales from Peterborough, but has been hanging around Broadway for a few years. Playing Bob is a reprise for him, having performed the role in 2005/6 in San Francisco in which Kate Baldwin (his real-life wife) played Betty Haynes. Baldwin also makes her reprise in that role here at the Sony Centre. Tony Yazbeck plays Phil Davis, the other half of the song-and-dance men team, while Shannon O'Bryan plays Judy Haynes. What is so great about this show, aside from its production values, which include ingenious sets, and a high octane nostalgia fix, is that these four, along with most of the cast, can actually sing. And what else one likes is that they do not attempt to imitate the original movie roles, performed by Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen (whose voice was dubbed by Trudy Stevens). They bring their own gifts to the roles.

Barry Flatman makes a fine General Henry Waverly, who has sunk all of his money into a Vermont inn that is about to fail because of lack of snow. His granddaughter Susan is played by 10-year-old Burlington (ON) resident Cassidy Swanston, who is making her professional debut in this show. She, and Kate Henning, a last-minute replacement for an ailing Nora McLellan in the role of Waverly's spunky inn concierge, Martha Watson, don't exactly steal the show, but certainly come close to it. No cutesy antics for the little girl, and no playing it over the top for Henning, who has a voice that equals Ethel Merman's and can hoof it with the best of the excellent chorus line.

The choreography is outstanding. How wonderful it is to see some real tap dancing, and to hear some real cleats beating the tap rhythms on the stage floor instead of the phony amplification of all those Celtic dance groups. The costumes and wigs capture the period for the most part, but designer Carrie Robbins brings in some acid colors that just weren't around in 1953. Nor would a male have worn a pink shirt then, or worn such shrieking ties, gaudy maybe, but not colors that are of a pallet wrought by L E D lights.

The final scenes are pure Currier and Ives, and look very much like my backyard right now after an additional snow fall today that we hope forecasts a White Christmas for us. It may seem all very sentimental, but all of the musical numbers in this show, from Happy Holidays, Love and the Weather, Sisters, Snow, Count Your Blessings, I Love a Piano right down to White Christmas, represent the very best of Irving Berlin's wonderful songs. They are varied. Not one sounds like the other, something that today's composers do not seem to be able to match. It doesn't matter who wrote what so-called musicals today, they are all cookie cutters of each other. Not Berlin's songs. They stay in your mind, and they make you feel great, or sometimes sad. But, do they ever entertain you.