Broadway is certainly full of them: those amazing performers dubbed as "triple threats"—those singer/dancer/actor-types that are just brimming with an abundance of extraordinary talent. David Elder rightly belongs in this revered group, and has proven the label quite a lot over the years, working steadily on the stage with an envious consistency.

His previous credits include the musicals Curtains, 42nd Street (receiving Outer Critics and Astaire Award nominations), Kiss Me Kate, Titanic, Once Upon A Mattress, Damn Yankees, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and Guys and Dolls starring Nathan Lane. He also played Joe Hardy opposite Jerry Lewis in the National Tour of Damn Yankees and starred as Timothy opposite Kristin Chenoweth in the Encores! production of Strike Up The Band.

For the holiday season, he's bringing his knack for entertaining audiences as one of the leads in the touring stage version of Irving Berlin's WHITE CHRISTMAS, which will close out 2011 at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa with performances from December 13 through January 1, 2012. Before arriving with his merry cast in Orange County where they'll spend the remainder of the holidays, Elder chatted with BroadwayWorld's Michael Lawrence Quintos about his early interests, his path towards a fulfilling career in musical theater, and his tap-happy foray into Danny Kaye's shoes.

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Hi, David! You're starring as Phil Davis in the stage version of WHITE CHRISTMAS, one of the most beloved holiday movies of all time. Is it much different from the movie?

David: Actually, our show is very similar to the movie. Though, there are a few omissions of songs that were in the movie that are not in the stage version, and vice-versa. They've put in some other Irving Berlin tunes in place of a few songs that were in the movie, just to give it some more pizazz. For instance, "I Love A Piano" opens Act 2—which is a number that was not in the movie. It's an eight-minute tap extravaganza, if you will. [Laughs] Yeah, it seems to be a real crowd-pleaser. They took out songs like this choreography number in the movie that Danny Kaye did. And there's this one called "Mandy" that Vera Ellen did. Neither of those two are in this new stage version. They're not really needed to tell the story.

Interesting. Now, you mentioned Danny Kaye, who famously played your very same role in the original movie. How difficult was it to make this well-known character your own?

Well... You know, it's just one of those age-old problems where you have all these great MGM movies with these big stars like Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby... and, you know, it's quite a challenge to try to live up to people's expectations of what we—all of us—carry around as almost iconic memories. So you kind of have to just let all of that go. I don't really resemble Danny Kaye at all... physically or, you know, in the looks department. So I sort of had to make it work for me.

The dialogue and the story that my character Phil Davis displays is more of like a ladies' man. You know, he flirts with all the girls and doesn't really want to settle down or think of himself as a "taken man." So, I don't know... I think that [personality] falls into something quite natural for me, to sort of just, you know, kind of be the ladies' man and play on that... as opposed to what Danny Kaye's brilliance was, certainly on camera, which was his ability to be goofy/comical and use lots of fun face-acting. He's a great second banana to someone who's more straight like Bing Crosby. I still try to capture all of that flavor, but yet, not in the same package.

So, to answer your original question... it was kind of daunting at first, and then you realize, "oh, okay, you just gotta do what you do well... and make that entertaining." And [this role] is really fun for me, because normally I get to play these sort of dashing, leading men, straight parts. Here in WHITE CHRISTMAS, I get a chance to dance my butt off and be this sort of comical second banana!