Featuring the much-loved song White Christmas, you can see why a producer would decide to stage the musical version of Holiday Inn in the lead-up to the festive season, even though the show itself features holidays across the year – including Easter and Thanksgiving.

With its classic story about putting on a show and falling in love, it offers plenty of nostalgia for fans of traditional, old-school musicals from stage and screen, and the Christmas scenes feel suitably warm and fuzzy for lovers of the silly season.

Mary McCorry and Nigel Huckle in Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn. Photo © Robert Catto

Based on the 1942 movie starring Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale, Holiday Inn is a slight show with a predictable plot and a pretty thin book. Its biggest appeal is the score, which features some wonderful songs by Irving Berlin.

Most of the music from the film is there, as well as some additional numbers, which were added by the show’s librettists Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge. So, there’s a passing parade of classics from the Great American Songbook such as Blue Skies, Cheek...