It’s that time of year again. Christmas lights are up, beaches are packed, and everybody is just about fed up with work and exams. It’s the holiday season, and what better way to spend it then by watching an all holiday-themed musical?

Well, ‘Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn’ at Riverside Theatres Paramatta will be sure to scratch that holiday itch. The musical by Chad Hodge and Gordon Greenberg adapts Berlin’s original 1942 screenplay, and with it all the caustic charm and spirited sincerity of classic American 90’s romcoms.

You’ve seen this story a hundred times: two men fight for the love of one woman. Singer Jim Hardy (Rob Mallett) is the loveable straight-man set on building a quiet and peaceful life; the other, dancer Ted Hanover (Max Patterson), is the sly and (somewhat) sleazy rival who wants to make it Hollywood big. This time though, our love story is set at the titular Holiday Inn, a farm bought by Jim in Connecticut where music and dance ensue only on, you guessed it, the holidays! At the Holiday Inn, love blooms between Jim and previous owner Linda Mason (Mary McCorry), which is then complicated when Ted pushes Linda to become his new dance partner.

The adapted script is certainly not going to blow you away. It’s the kind of love story that’s become the run-of-the-mill: containing the same thousand romcom tropes coupled with weird pacing and structure (the Holiday Inn isn’t established until just before the second act!). A classic or not, the script is a bit of a dud.

However, what will get you smiling and clapping is director Sally Dashwood’s keen interest in playing up the melodrama of it all. The production has this cheeky, hilarious, and slightly sardonic self-awareness oozing out: actors conducting the live band faster to mess with the music’s tempo and rhythm, breaking the fourth wall to treat the audience as the in-world patrons of the Holiday Inn, Jim and Ted unknowingly and happily dancing with each other as Linda gets whisked away. These stylised choices demonstrate a great understanding that what will get the audience onboard with this musical is emphasising its playfulness.

Choreographer Veronica Beattie George also understood the assignment. Tap-shoes, canes, jump-rope, the whole ballroom blitz; it’s like a travelling fair came to town and you couldn’t get more playful if you tried. Paired with the capable and talented ensemble, the choreographed dance and swing really elevates the music. On that note, Music Director Dylan Pollard does well to preserve and modernise Berlin’s original lyrics, keeping the catchy tunes while adding a new pep to its step.

A standout musically was McCorry’s Linda Mason, who sung beautifully and often left me in awe of her incredible voice. Performance-wise, Paloma Renouf as New York superstar and Jim’s ex-fiancé, Lila Dixon, was an absolute pleasure to watch. Bombastic, loud, and a little bit ditzy, Renouf plays the showbiz stereotype fantastically. It was always a delight when she was onstage.

And delight is the best word to describe this production. Although I found the musical was full of tired tropes and weird pacing, ‘Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn’ was seriously just a delight!

Appropriately festive and a jolly good time, ‘Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn’ is playing at Riverside Theatres Paramatta until December 14th.