Irving Berlin “White Christmas” at Art Center Theatre

For December 13th-17th, the Fort Myers Theatre production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas will travel to the Arts Center Theatre on Marco Island to celebrate White Christmas! Based on the beloved, timeless film, this heartwarming musical adaptation features 17 Irving Berlin songs and is adapted from the book by David Ives and Paul Blake. Irving Berlin wrote the Oscar winning title song White Christmas, and the first performer to record it was Bing Crosby in 1942.

Did you know that White Christmas is the world’s best-selling single in music history? It has sold 50 million copies since it was released in 1942!

The musical is based on the 1954 film of the same name. The book is by David Ives and Paul Blake, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. The musical premiered in St. Louis in 2000 at The Muny, after which it opened in San Francisco in 2004. It has since played in various venues in the US and Canada, such as Boston, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Detroit, Denver, St. Paul, and Louisville. The musical tells the story of a military veteran song-and-dance team putting on a show in a magical Vermont inn and falling head-over-heels for a stunning sister act in the process.

The husband-and-wife team of Michelle and Jeremy Kuntze — the theater’s artistic director and executive producer, respectively - run two organizations under the same roof: Creative Theater Workshop, the nonprofit children’s theater program that Michelle has run since 2006, and the for-profit community theater with actors of all ages which opened in March of 2021. Both organizations stage plays and musicals at Fort Myers Theatre on San Carlos Blvd in South Fort Myers. The company produces at least one community theater production a month in addition to the children’s theater productions from Creative Theater Workshop.

Kicking off the holiday season with equal parts nostalgia and novelty, Irving Berlin's White Christmas the Musical is the perfect way to capture the spirit of the season from inside the Hafen Theatre through Dec. 22. For ticket information, go to marcoislandart.org and click on “Arts Center Theatre.”