'White Christmas' slated for Wang's holiday marquee
Looking for another holiday-season smash, the Wang Center for the Performing Arts will produce its own version of Irving Berlin's musical ''White Christmas."
The production, opening Nov. 25 and directed by Broadway veteran Walter Bobbie, is meant to give the Wang a money-maker that can alternate each holiday season with ''The Radio City Christmas Spectacular."
The Radio City show, first presented in Boston in 2004, revived the Wang, drawing more than 200,000 people into the struggling nonprofit institution. But it won't be back until 2006 at the earliest, said Wang president Josiah Spaulding Jr.
He hopes ''White Christmas" can spark the same excitement and ticket frenzy.
The show is based on a 1954 movie of the same name, which centers on Berlin's famous song. Spaulding, who saw a production last year at San Francisco's Curran Theatre, described it as a ''big show" that featured 32 actors, 24 musicians, and elaborate sets. ''By the time it gets to the end and it was snowing in the entire theater, and I'm standing there singing 'White Christmas,' tears were rolling down my face," he said.
The Wang has purchased the rights to ''White Christmas" and will share the cost of producing it with the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, Minn. It will play Boston in 2005 and St. Paul in 2006. Both theaters hope to continue alternating the production. Casting begins next month.
Spaulding wouldn't say the exact cost of ''White Christmas," which is the biggest investment the Wang has ever made in a single show. But he said the Wang spends $750,000 on its summer productions by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, its free program on the Boston Common. ''You could at least think of this as double that," he said.
In the movie, starring Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney, a group of performers puts on a show to save a struggling Vermont inn. Spaulding faces a similar challenge with the Wang, which has lost money in recent years. Its deficit for this year could be as high as $1 million.
The Radio City show was the only production to make money last year, Spaulding said.
''It was spectacular," he said. ''The electricity that flowed through here, and it was a huge boost in staff morale."
Spaulding's decision to bring in the touring Rockettes in 2004 also reshaped the city's holiday entertainment market. The Wang kicked out Boston Ballet's production of ''The Nutcracker" from its flagship, the 3,600-seat Wang Theatre. The ballet struggled financially in its move to the 1,640-seat Colonial Theatre. This upcoming season, ''Nutcracker" moves into the 2,600-seat Opera House.
Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.
