Get a terrific holiday hug from The Gateway’s ‘Irving Berlin’s White Christmas’

There’s a reason “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” playing at The Gateway (Nov. 29 through Dec. 2), got shout-outs when it hit Broadway in 2008 and continues to rouse theatergoers to their feet. Dance scenes including tap urging you to join in on stage by Tony Award-winning choreographer and Broadway icon Randy Skinner, with talented performers singing lovely, happy songs by Irving Berlin and gorgeous colorful costumes and sets!

Oh, and the leads are all Broadway and off-Broadway alums.

Berlin’s songs reflected the mystical sphere he was open to, projecting love, joy, romance, gratefulness and optimism. He lived during a tough time, but his musicality brought in the light.

There are 26 in the cast. Executive artistic director Paul Allan was asked about his favorite scene.

(Spoiler alert!)

“I guess it’s the finale when the barn door opens, and it snows on stage. It’s pretty magical when we see it’s a white Christmas—it’s what everyone is waiting for,” Allan said.

The fun storyline is based on the 1954 Paramount film classic of the same name. Two successful Broadway partners try to save the Vermont resort owned by their old Army general, from closing (it’s winter and he needs snow), with help from two glam sister singers.

There’s romance. Missed cues. Humor. Wow! Sign me up.

The Long Island Advance recently sat down with director/choreographer Skinner, and former Rockette and Stage Door School of Dance owner Mary Giattino, who has collaborated on dance with Skinner on many shows. Also, music director Andrew Haile Austin, whose guiding hand directed soaring scores for this season’s “In the Heights,” “The Wedding Singer” and “Evita.”

LIA: For Randy: Vera Lynn’s tap scene is the most famous one in the movie, but what others are incorporated? “The Best Things Happen When Your Dancing?”

Randy Skinner: “Mandy” won’t be in there, but it’s the same as the Broadway show, including “The Best Things Happen When You’re Dancing” between the characters Phil and Judy. There are 10 scenes that involve dancing, including the opening, “Best Things,” “Sisters,” “Blue Skies,” “I Love a Piano.” It’s jazz, ballroom, tap. Everyone remembers tap.LIA: You choreographed the original Broadway production of “White Christmas” at the Marquis Theatre.

Randy Skinner: We premiered the show in San Francisco in 2004. In 2008, we opened at the Marquis Theatre on Broadway. It was a huge hit and sold really well. Most people didn’t know the 1942 movie “Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn” (great singing and dancing, but a different story line also involving an old inn), but they were familiar with the 1954 Technicolor movie. When you work on a beloved movie, the challenge [thing] is to move it to the stage.

LIA: Do you still take dance classes and teach at Steps on Broadway?

Randy Skinner: I still teach and take classes. My goal is to create every step on stage and demonstrate it, so I have to keep in shape. It sets the bar. If you have the choreographer doing it, it makes a difference. Most of the cast at Gateway is doing the show for the first time.

LIA: I saw “Cheek to Cheek – Irving Berlin in Hollywood,” in 2021, at the York Theatre Company, conceived, directed and choreographed by you. It was great. Any new creations?

Randy Skinner: I have a fascinating movie script about the life of Busby Berkely (motion picture director who created amazing dance scenes with glamorous women) that’s in the works. He had six wives, an amazing life, but also a terrible auto accident. It’s a real drama to musicalize.

LIA: This is for Andrew Austin. Your bio says you began composing at age 10 and you took off from there after moving to New York as a musician. (Austin now lives in Brooklyn.)  You have music [and] directed almost 100 productions. And also composed an opera (Austin has a doctorate in composition), “The Snow Maiden of Appalachia,” that was presented by Tidewater Opera Initiative in Norfolk, Va., in 2016.

Andrew Austin: My mom forced me to take piano lessons. She’d set the timer and if I played the wrong notes, she would sing them from the kitchen—she sang opera. I come from a military family and we moved around a lot, so I learned to sight read music and most of it was Broadway tunes. I’d played some of the rehearsals in high school in northern Virginia and for “South Pacific,” the music director quit, showed up at my house, and as I taught the music and played for the rehearsals, I was hired. I was 15.

LIA: How many musicians in “White Christmas?”

Andrew Austin: There are eight in the orchestra. The music has a lot of horns, reed players and strings, and we have to push it down. I fill in a lot with piano or a second will fill in. I do little bits of re-orchestration, assisting with strings and cello on the keyboard.

LIA: Favorite song in the musical?

Andrew Austin: They’re all so good and I love how it ends with the title song, the huge ensemble and a big finish. The orchestra and dance arrangements expand the music to a bigger world. Irving Berlin was able to write catchy tunes but also ballads, 1,500 of them. Every night, he wrote to 5 a.m. and would then bring the songs to rehearsals.

LIA: This is for Mary Giattino. (Giattino  choreographed Gateway’s 2012 “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas with director David Ruttera; she was assistant choreographer and assistant dance captain for the Broadway version, working with Skinner in 2009, and appeared with the cast in a skating number for “Good Morning America” that year.) How will you work with Randy on the show?

Mary Giattino: I stage all his steps. I’ll teach all of the heavy dance numbers with his presence. Then Randy watches the dancers and shares with me what he wants to see from them or improve.The Gateway is located at 215 South Country Road, Bellport. For tickets, contact the Box Office at 631-286-1133 or visit www.TheGateway.org.