Snow job White Christmas moves into the Wang BY IRIS FANGER

Global warming? Not to worry. The folks at the Wang Theatre are presenting Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, a stage extravaganza based on the 1954 film. And they’ve promised snow for the holidays, albeit from the stagehands’ bag of tricks.

The film starred Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as a pair of World War II soldiers turned song-and-dance men after returning stateside. On discovering that their beloved general is going broke because there’s no snow to attract skiers to his New England inn, the actors import their act to the backwoods of Vermont. The show sells out, and the snow arrives on cue to bring down the final curtain. Vera-Ellen and Rosemary Clooney, as a pair of show-biz siblings, provide the requisite romance — and the excuse for Berlin’s song "Sisters," one of 13 numbers including the title tune.

The stage version of White Christmas premiered to critical praise and a hot box office last season in San Francisco. "There’s a dearth of new material for the road," says Josiah A. Spaulding, president and CEO of the Wang Center for the Performing Arts. "We need to create quality product for the big stage, like the one we have here. I saw the show in San Francisco and loved it." Subsequently the Wang and St. Paul’s Ordway Center for the Performing Arts teamed up to buy the sets and costumes from San Francisco and share presentation of White Christmas in alternate years. (The Wang plans to book the Rockettes again in 2006.)

In his quest for new musicals to light the lights at the Wang, Spaulding has turned producer, forming a consortium with four other regional non-profits called Five Cent Productions that in turn has bought a one-third share in the commercial venture Elephant Eye Theatrical. "People are tired of the revival of the revival of the revival. How else are we going to find new shows?" New musicals the Wang has invested in include The Color Purple, now in previews in New York, and Matthew Bourne’s production of Edward Scissorhands, which opens in London this week.

Meanwhile, the same production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas appears in triplicate this season, in San Francisco and Los Angeles as well as in Boston. Director Walter Bobbie (Chicago) and choreographer Randy Skinner (42nd Street) have been rehearsing three companies simultaneously in New York. "You can have the choruses together in one big room in the beginning and teach them all the steps," Skinner explains. "There’s a lot of dancing in the show. People have been beaming since day one." Berlin’s "I Love a Piano," a big tap number, and "Blue Skies" will augment the film score. "Berlin is such a danceable composer," Skinner notes, "because he wrote so many numbers for Fred and Ginger."

IRVING BERLIN’S WHITE CHRISTMAS | Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St, Boston | November 25–December 31 | $22-$78 | Wang box office or 800.447.7400 or http://www.wangcenter.org/.