Irving Berlin's White Christmas - the musical, Dominion Theatre, review: 'commercially canny' I don't want to start sounding like Russell Brand but if you're keen to feel a warm Christmassy glow inside, you might be better off donating the admission price for this production to a homeless charity, rather than lavishing your dough on this cloyingly festive musical. Granted, early November isn't the ideal time to assess the virtues of a show that feels custom-built for the holiday period and seemingly compresses 12 days" worth of hearty good cheer into two and a half hours. But you'd have to be a very devoted fan of the 1954 Hollywood classic upon which this is based and very forgiving of the fact that the celluloid original easily outstrips this theatrical re-incarnation in old-world charm not to suffer a touch of the Bah humbugs. One unavoidable issue about mounting Irving Berlin's White Christmas - the musical (which surfaced in San Francisco 10 years ago, popped up on Broadway and has also enjoyed a UK tour) is the difficulty of finding the right leading men for the roles of Bob and Phil. This vaudeville double-act has been thrown together by war and later rides to the rescue of their former commander. Discovering that business is bad at General Waverly's ski lodge in Vermont (even the Yuletide snow has failed to materialise) the pair decide to put on a big flashy show, fast, and rally their old brothers-in-arms to their makeshift barn theatre. It's plainly impossible to rival fully the memory of Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Even so, a magical twinkle has to radiate from the star players and I'm afraid that, grateful though I am to Aled Jones for Walking in the Air all those years ago, his performance as Bob is only a serviceable trudge in Crosby's footsteps. Jones, 43, executes the best-loved song of the night White Christmas early on as well as you'd expect, but an initial awkwardness lingers and boy does his American accent need to bed in. When Jones finally closes in on Rachel Stanley as flame-haired beauty Betty - one half of a demure showbiz sister-act - the sexual temperature-gauge hardly climbs above zero. Tom Chambers as Phil is far more fit-for-purpose - as gangly and grinny as Kaye was, and a vital cog in many of the well-oiled, teeth-and-smiles dance routines. When he sweeps about with Louise Bowden as Judy, Betty's blonde bombshell sibling, in the exquisite sequence The Best Things Happen When You're Dancing - something like lift-off is achieved. Yet even he struggles to bring much personality to bear on the part and with a lightweight storyline barely embellished by librettists David Ives and Paul Blake, you're mainly left admiring baubles. The stylish costumes, the wrapping-paper décor, the hummable-while-they-last tunes, the big-band vibe; all this is a boon. Some of the supporting turns - not least Wendi Peters as larger-than-life receptionist Martha - leave a strong imprint too. But the old adage that "happiness writes white" rings familiar bells and I'm afraid that overall this dramatically flaky, commercially canny affair left me cold. Until Jan 3. Tickets: 0845 200 7982; whitechristmasmusical.co.uk