Nostalgia runs rampant this time of year, and Irving Berlin’s “Holiday Inn” at Diamond Head Theatre capitalizes on the esteemed composer’s time-tested tunes to provide quaint, lightweight entertainment.
The musical is based on the 1942 film of the same name starring the incomparable Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire as a song-and-dance team who find themselves competing for the same gal after the crooner makes an ill-advised decision to leave show business behind and settle down on a ramshackle farm in Connecticut.
The Diamond Head Theatre show that runs through Dec. 23 is the country’s first community theater production of Broadway’s “Holiday Inn,” which opened in 2016 to mostly tepid reviews. With book by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge, the musical strings together a checklist of 20-plus songs from the movie and Berlin’s vast catalogue — some familiar, others not so much.
The production’s rapid- fire run through the numbers turns “Holiday Inn” into little more than a jukebox musical with the usual threadbare plot and generic characters.
As such, Zachary Linnert and Erin Wong are likeable as romantic leads Jim Hardy and Linda Mason, a schoolteacher whose family once owned the rundown farm a desperate Jim is encouraged to open as a holidays-only inn. Both have lovely singing voices that serve the material well.
Kaimana Ramos brings slicked-back good looks and fine footwork as hoofer Ted Hanover, who shows up drunk at the farm after his blonde-bombshell dance partner, Lila Dixon, splits to marry a Texas millionaire. It’s a bit of karma, as Lila had ditched Jim and his pastoral idyll to hit the road with Ted.
It isn’t long before Ted tries to lure Linda to Hollywood as his new partner.
But first, a show for the visiting Hollywood producers!
Sensing deja vu, Jim sabotages Ted and Linda’s sensual “Cheek to Cheek” dance number by commandeering the orchestra to play uptempo style. Linnert’s anxious expression and frantic gesturing provide a laugh-out-loud moment.
Otherwise “Holiday Inn” brightens only when the energetic ensemble takes over the stage, with choreographers Lisa Kimsey and Caryn Yee wisely spotlighting the lively ladies on the line.
Packing boxes are tossed overhead when Jim’s former castmates show up to help him move into his fixer-upper in “Blue Skies,” but the real show-stopper is the first act’s “Shaking the Blues Away,” complete with an extended jump-rope sequence.
Vanessa Manuel-Mazzullo was the undisputed star of Friday’s opening night performance as “handyman” Louise, a meddling wiseacre whose outsized personality defies her diminutive stature. A well-timed quip or outlandish costume change by the sassy scene-stealer breathed life into the sections that lacked verve, and Manuel-Mazzullo proved she’s handy at belting out a tune, too, even while dancing with metal buckets on her feet.
Rachele Rees, a newcomer to Honolulu’s theater scene, also shines — literally, thanks to Karen Wolfe’s glittering costumes — as brassy Lila Dixon. Her sultry and acrobatic “Heat Wave” dance number with Ramos was another first-act highlight.
Wolfe deserves a curtain call of her own, not only for the 1940s-era wardrobe but for the ensemble’s dazzling and varied outfits that included cornucopia headdresses for “Plenty to be Thankful For” and the exaggerated sculptural bonnets in “Easter Parade.”
Christopher Obenchain made the most of his small role as hard-boiled agent Danny, who warns Jim that moving to Connecticut will doom him to a life of “wearing plaid and repressing his emotions,” while 12-year-old Charlie Ho was a charmer as Charlie Winslow, who scooters in to deliver overdue bank notices.
Although the Crosby- Astaire film introduced Berlin’s beloved “White Christmas,” those who haven’t seen the movie in awhile should be reminded that “Holiday Inn” isn’t really a Christmas movie. In fact, a Christmas tree doesn’t make an appearance on stage until an hour into the show, and once done with Jim and Linda’s “White Christmas” duet and a peppy “Holiday Inn/Happy Holiday” mashup, it’s on to New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s, Easter and the Fourth of July, in keeping with the theme of Jim’s modest venture.
In case you were expecting fake snow and carols by the fire.
IRVING BERLIN’S ‘HOLIDAY INN’
>> Where: Diamond Head Theatre, 520 Makapuu Ave.
>> When: Various showtimes through Dec. 23
>> Cost: $15 to $50
>> Info: 733-0274, diamondheadtheatre.com
