photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Cast members rehearse "White Christmas" at Theatre Lawrence on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025.

Even if your family watches the Bing Crosby classic “White Christmas” every year, the stage version, opening Friday at Theatre Lawrence, might still have something new for you to unwrap.

One of its gifts to director Joshua Shockey was a classic song he’d never heard before – one from the late ’40s or early ’50s called “Falling Out of Love Can Be Fun.”

“It’s almost like an Andrews Sisters-type three-part harmony, you know, ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy’-type thing,” Shockey said. “And I really wasn’t aware of that song until this show. And it has become my and some of the cast’s favorite of the entire show.”

That’s only natural when a musical is built around the work of Irving Berlin, who wrote more than 1,000 songs over his half-century career. Some of the numbers are ones you might recognize even though they weren’t in the 1954 film: “Happy Holiday,” “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,” and “I Love a Piano,” which Shockey says is “the one I go away humming all the time.”

But, rest assured, you’ll still hear the iconic numbers that Crosby and the rest of the movie’s cast made famous, like “Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep),” “Sisters,” and of course the nostalgia-inducing title track.

“We are very aware of the nostalgia,” Shockey said. “And most of the cast and crew, including myself, love the movie, grew up with the movie. So we tried to pay homage to it as much as we could.”

photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Ellen Welander, left, and Abby Ilardi rehearse “White Christmas” at Theatre Lawrence.

photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Conner Booton, left, and Jeremy Willmoth rehearse “White Christmas” at Theatre Lawrence.

Shockey said many people who auditioned did so because of their fondness for the film — a story of two veterans who try to save their Army general’s inn in Vermont and fall in love with a pair of singing sisters. It wasn’t just the older performers who had fond memories of it, but some in their 20s, as well.

“They love the movie, and it’s been part of their traditions with family and things like that, even watching it as they grew up,” Shockey said.

Capturing the film’s charm in a live performance has taken some creativity by the cast and crew. For starters, there’s the challenge of depicting all the places the movie goes.

“There’s a lot of moving pieces in the set to create all of those different places – the train, the inn, the barn, ‘The Ed Sullivan Show,'” Shockey said.

Then there are also the “subtle moments” that look so easy in a movie: “They can put a close-up on somebody and maybe do two or three takes, when we have one take,” Shockey said. For many scenes, he said, the team paid careful attention to the colors of the sets to evoke a specific mood. The dance numbers, too, have seen some changes.

“We tried to keep all of the movement fresh and bring some new ideas to it,” he said. “But overall, it’s hard not to acknowledge the nostalgia and what we all loved about that movie.”

Shockey said a big part of theater is doing something that people will love. He was talking to Theatre Lawrence Executive Director Jamie Ulmer about this, he said, and he told Ulmer that “theater and movies and that stuff should be kind of an escape from the crazy world we’re in.”

“And so I think that that’s what it’s about as well,” he said. “It’s a movie you can watch with your family, it’s a show you can go to with your family, and it has a moment for everybody.”

“White Christmas” opens Friday, Dec. 5, at Theatre Lawrence, 4660 Bauer Farm Drive, and runs through Sunday, Dec. 21. For showtimes and ticket information, visit theatrelawrence.com.

photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Cast members rehearse “White Christmas” at Theatre Lawrence on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025.

photo by: Courtesy of Theatre Lawrence

Cast members rehearse “White Christmas” at Theatre Lawrence on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025.