Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre announces 2011-12 season

Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre has announced its 2011 2012 season line-up. Individual tickets are now on sale.

Main stage show prices range from $27 to $51 with group and children's prices available. Performances are Tuesday through Sunday evenings (no Tuesday evening performances May through October) with selected matinees.

Broadway Palm's 2011-2012 Season includes eight main stage productions, four productions in The Off Broadway Palm and four Children's Theatre productions.

- "'S Wonderful" (Sept. 1 Oct. 1)

A new musical that celebrates the genius of George and Ira Gershwin. This all-singing, all-dancing musical revue features timeless classics such as "Rhapsody in Blue," "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "I Got Rhythm" and "Someone to Watch Over Me."

*Season Opener Special: $39 for dinner & show.

- "Sugar The 'Some Like It Hot' Musical" (Oct. 6 Nov. 19)

This musical comedy is about two unemployed musicians who witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. To escape the mob, they disguise themselves as women and join an all-female band who are about to leave town for an engagement at a Miami Beach hotel.

- Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" (Nov. 24 Dec. 25)

The stage adaptation about two ex-GI's who have become famous entertainers. They put on a show to save the Vermont resort of their former commanding general. The 1954 film starred Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. The Irving Berlin score includes "Blue Skies," "Happy Holidays," "Sisters" and, the title song, "White Christmas."

- "Me and My Girl" (Dec. 29 Feb. 11)

It's 1937 and the Earl of Hareford has died leaving no apparent heir. The family has gathered, eagerly waiting to hear how the estate will be split. The unlikely heir is commoner Bill Snibson, a pugnacious Cockney ne'er-do-well from Lambeth. Hilarity ensues as the duchess tries to turn Bill into a proper gentleman. The British blue-bloods eventually warm to his charm and so will you as you dance in the aisles to the "Lambeth Walk."

*New Year's Eve tickets are $100 per person for dinner and the show.

- "Brigadoon" (Feb. 23 March 31)

A mysterious Scottish village appears for only one day every 100 years. Two American tourists, who are lost in the Scottish Highlands, stumble upon the village just as a wedding is about to be celebrated and their arrival has some serious implications for the village's inhabitants. The Lerner and Lowe score includes the song "Almost Like Being in Love.

Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn (1942 ...

Director Mark Sandrich and Paramount Pictures brought the delightful Holiday Inn to movie theaters in 1942. Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire star, with Der Bingle crooning the classic “White Christmas” for the very first time.

Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn

Irving Berlin had gotten the idea for Holiday Inn after penning the song “Easter Parade” for his Broadway musical As Thousands Cheer, which opened at New York City’s Music Box Theatre on September 30, 1933. A big success during the depths of the Great Depression, As Thousands Cheer would log 400 performances until its closing on September 8, 1934. Berlin later pitched his movie idea of a star-studded salute to American holidays to producer Mark Sandrich, who finally brought the film project to fruition nine years later.

Elmer Rice and Claude Binyon wrote Holiday Inn for Paramount Pictures. Mark Sandrich (Top Hat, Follow the Fleet, Skylark) produced and directed. Robert Emmett Dolan served as musical director, with original music by the prolific Irving Berlin.

Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire Star in Holiday Inn

Bing Crosby (Jim Hardy), Fred Astaire (Ted Hanover), Marjorie Reynolds (Linda Mason) and Virginia Dale (Lila Dixon) head the fine cast. Other players include Walter Abel (Danny Reed), Louise Beavers (Mamie), Irving Bacon (Gus), Marek Windheim (Francois), James Bell (Dunbar), John Gallaudet (Parker) and Shelby Bacon (Vanderbilt).

Playing an orchestra leader at the Midnight Club is Harry Barris, Bing Crosby’s old Rhythm Boys partner. Also making a cameo appearance is Bing’s younger brother, Bob Crosby, along with his orchestra.

Holiday Inn Filmed in California

Budgeted at a healthy .2 million, Holiday Inn was filmed from October 1941 to January 1942. Filming locations included the original Holiday Inn in Monte Rio, California, which is still in operation today as the Village Inn & Restaurant.

One of the picture’s more spectacular scenes was a Fourth of July sequence titled “Let’s Say It with Firecrackers,” which thrilled moviegoers of the era. “The firecracker number, in which I threw torpedoes to explode in a rhythmic conglomeration at my feet, took an awful lot of planning and rehearsing,” reported Fred Astaire in his autobiography Steps in Time (Harper & Brothers, 1959). “I also had the stage wired to set off what looked like strings of firecrackers with visible flashes as I stepped in certain spots.

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