White Christmas, Dominion Theatre **

The cast in White Christmas

Well it wasn't all awful!

The musical adaptation of Irving Berlin's film has finally made it's way to the West End spreading good cheer and peace to all men 8 times a week. Yes it is one dimensional, yes it's too sentimental, sacarin and sweet and yes it has one of the cheesiest plot lines in theatre (that's saying something) but I liked it. Perhaps it's because I saw it on Boxing Day or perhaps Berlin's gift of the melody won me over but I came out with a smile on my face. The ensemble are spectacular with wonderous tap routines and singing up to the same standard as any other show you can see. They are let down, however, by rather unconvincing performances from the leads (Aled Jones was not in this particular performance). The show itself also has one major problem. The producers can clearly not identify the difference between cinema and theatre as the show is trying to be a film just in real life. However, despite these major problems, it does what it has set out to do which is to spread the Christmas spirit to the audience.