“It’s a classic holiday feel-good story.”

So says Keri Danner about the show “White Christmas,” and she knows that piece quite well — she is, after all, one of the stars of the production that opens Thursday at the Chestnut Street Playhouse in Norwich.

Of course, “White Christmas” has a long, storied history. The title song, now a holiday standard, debuted in the 1942 Bing Crosby film “Holiday Inn.”

In 1954, Hollywood minds decided to build a movie around that same tune. “White Christmas” starred Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, and, over the years, it moved from being a successful movie release to a December TV fixture.

In “White Christmas,” buddies Bob and Phil, back from World War II, decide to join forces as a song-and-dance team. They also set their romantic sights on Haynes sisters Betty and Judy and trail them to a Vermont country inn where the siblings are booked to sing. When it turns out that the lodge, coincidentally owned by the guys’ former Army commander, is struggling financially, everybody pitches in to help.

Part of the plot, too, finds Phil and Judy trying to make a romantic match between Bob and Betty.

Danner says her character of Judy “doesn’t always think things through, which I can relate to (she laughs). Judy has good intentions. She loves her sister dearly and is trying to set her sister up for love.”

Danner sees the show as being “nostalgia at its best.” Its message, she says, is how what’s important in life “goes beyond money and what you have at the end of the day … It’s more about the people who surround you and the love and the friendships standing the test of time, everybody rallying around you when you need to be picked up and need a little help along the way.

“That’s absolutely what this show is about. It’s about family and friends coming together to celebrate and to pick up somebody that was in need, to take care of their own.”

And, of course, beyond the warm message and the bubbly humor, “White Christmas” offers splendid music. The title tune, Danner says, is “the quintessential holiday song.” Other numbers that audience members will recognize include “Blue Skies” (“a great jazz piece,” Danner says); “Sisters,” which is sung by the two female leads; and “I Love a Piano” (Danner says it is a “standard that has been covered by many other contemporary artists to this day”).

At Chestnut Street Playhouse, Brandon Gregoire directs the cast that, along with Danner, features Dan Healy as Bob Wallace, Zach Scovish as Phil Davis, and Christine Shogren as Betty Haynes. Danner has praise for everyone, including the production staff; she applauds, among others, director-choreographer Gregoire, music director Scott Mayfield, costumer Brenda Alexander and the theater’s acting president, Lisa Foss.

This marks Danner’s first performance since 2004, when she was onstage at the now-defunct Majestic Rose Dinner Theater in Norwich. Before that, she had been involved in various theater projects in the area and played roles ranging from Cinderella to Lady Macbeth, both at the Bradley Playhouse in Putnam.

She moved away in the interim and, now that she’s back, she says she “just decided now is the time (to return to the stage). We will figure out the schedule as we go.”

She and her husband, Seth, have three children ages 7 to 11, and she works as a dance instructor at Danceworks in Moosup.

When she saw that Chestnut Street Playhouse was staging “White Christmas,” Danner was drawn in by the show’s plot, music and the dancing and choreography.

“It really spoke to me in terms of my interests in the theater. It’s such a beautiful show. It really brings to light the meaning of the holidays in a great way to celebrate the season,” Danner says.

She says she loves old Hollywood musicals and grew up viewing them. Now, she has made watching movies like that a tradition with her own family. She’s not the only one. She notes that many cast members talk about watching “White Christmas” with their kin. She says that Carroll Mailhot, who plays the inn keeper’s wife, has said that her family has watched it together for years.

“That’s so great — now she gets to bring that moment to life,” Danner says. “How wonderful will that be for her family, who knows the show so well. To be able to see one of their own actually performing it — that will be really special.”

“White Christmas,” Thurs.-Dec. 17, Chestnut Street Playhouse, 24 Chestnut St., Norwich; 7:30 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. and 2 p.m. Sun.; $25; (860) 886-2378, chestnutstreetplayhouse.tix.com.