Riverside Center for the Performing Arts - "White Christmas" Dinner Theater 2025

A Review by Principal Powers

Fredericksburg, VA has a dinner theater known as The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts. They put on a variety of theatrical shows and offer a meal to their patrons with their performances. During December 2025, the theater put on Irving Berlin's "White Christmas".

We were in attendance to this performance because a local high school choir had been invited to perform a few numbers prior to the main production, and we were there to see our student who was in that choir.

Upon arrival, there were plenty of workers and volunteers to help one with everything from scanning the tickets to helping find seats. The venue was nice, clean and professional.

The event started with the included meal right away with a small salad and a drink choice of coffee, tea, or water. Patrons had a choice between salmon, lasagna or a vegetarian meal for their main course. The meal also included a very small, basic dessert. As we had previously been told the food was not good at this venue, we were happy to discover the meal was basically reasonable quality (but not great). Our particular servers were the star of the meal as they were kind, helpful and very accommodating. They were happy to keep your coffee, tea or water filled throughout the event. Additionally, there were some extra offerings beyond the basic menu that people could order at an additional charge. A tip is expected at the end of the meal and prior to the show whether you order any extras that cost additional money or not.

The visiting high school choir took the stage to briefly sing a few songs after the meal and prior to the main "White Christmas" performance. This was the main event for which we had come, as we had a student performing with this choir. We were very let down as the choir was made to stand on stage and sing in the DARK. At first, people thought the worker tending to the lights was having a problem finding the proper switches to turn the lights on for the stage and the group. Soon we realized they had no awareness of the problem or simply just weren't going to turn the lights on. Someone from our group even went up to the sound/light booth at the back of the auditorium and approached the worker and asked him to turn on some lights on the stage as the students were performing in the dark. His response was a jumbled response where he simply stated, "Sorry, but I won't be able to turn any lights on at this time," and just sat there. The high school students being left to perform completely in the dark, left an INCREDIBLY NEGATIVE and UNPROFESSIONAL vibe with which to start the rest of the main show. Many of us had paid the price to attend this event simply because our student was performing with the guest student choir. We would not have been there if it hadn't been for them performing. To tell people who have paid $92.55 to attend the event that you can't possibly turn on a stage light for the guest, student choir was unacceptable. The venue literally made the willful decision to have the choir standing in the complete dark the whole time they performed. This left a bad taste in our mouth and the word ridiculous comes to mind.

The main event of the performance of White Christmas followed the short, high school choir performance. The effort of the cast was commendable with the star of the show being the orchestra. The musicians' portion of the live performance was excellent. The rest of the performance had some bright spots with a few of their upbeat numbers. Additionally, the actress who played the housekeeper of General Waverly connected with the audience the most, as she was most like the original character from the famous movie, and audiences enjoy that.

It was a disappointment that poetic license had been taken to include non-Christmas-friendly moments by incorporating lines that included things like saying "what the hell" and "I'll be the one with the least amount of clothes on", etc. People want to relive the beautiful, sweet, fun-loving spirit of the original, vintage "White Christmas" movie at an event like this and not have it contaminated with modern vulgarities, no matter how slight. Additionally, having the two dingbat, lady characters come out during what is supposed to be the feel good finale of the story in pseudo, Las Vegas showgirl style costumes, instead of child ballerinas, as was in the original movie, was incredibly out of place and majorly detracted from the ending. As we left the theater, I also heard two people discussing that the inclusion of those types of costumes in the iconic ending scene of the White Christmas performance was very distasteful and inappropriate.

Many people would love to see a beloved holiday classic, live on stage, at this time of the year, and are willing to pay for it, but a few tweaks are needed to this performance before I would be willing to pay $92+ to see it again.