Lorna Luft has signed to play the featured role of innkeeper Martha Watson in Paper Mill Playhouse’s forthcoming holiday mounting of White Christmas. The musical, which features the music of Irving Berlin, will run from November 16 through December 24 at the Millburn, NJ, playhouse. Full casting will be announced in the near future.
Based on the beloved Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye film White Christmas tells the tale of two famous song-and-dance men who stage a show in a scenic, snow-topped Vermont inn and end up finding love with two singing sisters under the mistletoe. Featuring a book by David Ives and Paul Blake, the show was produced on Broadway in 2008 and 2009.
Luft appeared on Broadway with her mother in the 1967 revue Judy Garland at Home at the Palace and was a replacement in the role of Fran Kubelik in the original production of Promises, Promises in 1971. Off-Broadway, she co-starred with Farrah Fawcett in Extremities. Luft has headlined regional productions of Grease, Carnival, Little Shop of Horrors, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Girl Crazy, Mame and Gypsy and starred in national tours of They’re Playing Our Song and Guys & Dolls. She made her West End debut in the solo show Songs My Mother Taught Me and has appeared in the U.K. premiere of White Christmas, as well as the Edinburgh Playhouse production of the show.