Scrooge - Palace Theatre - 06/12/07 by Richard Graham

Christmas comes but once a year and typically brings with it the usual offerings of festive musicals and pantomimes. This year is no exception and the infamous Palace Theatre is offering Bill Kenwright’s musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Telling the tale of one mans repentance and redemption its message that money is not everything and the milk of human kindness is what really makes the world go around is, as always, particularly relevant in an ever commercial age.

Starring Shane Richie as the revolting misanthropist Ebenezer Scrooge this wonderful story has been adapted many times and judging by the packed theatre its popularity does not seem to be on the wane. As the lights dimmed and the cast took to the stage singing a melody of Christmas Carols they were warmly welcomed by the mixed audience that ranged from pensioners to office parties to a smattering of young families. Striding onto the set (which looked like a typical Victorian street) Richie was barely recognisable and was heavily made up to reflect the miserliness and age of the main protagonist.

Set in Victorian London the tale of Scrooge is universally well known but for those who have been living in a hole all their life it tells of one mans transformation overnight as three ghosts visit to show him the error of his ways. Taking him to view his past, present and what might be future they make him realise that his greed and bitterness has driven away everyone who loved him and resulted in terrible hardship for those that are still involved with him. Drawing the audience in the production used the story superbly and a constantly adapting set was effectively used and it quickly changed from a packed street to a bedroom in just a blink of an eye.

The arrival of the ghosts were also cleverly done and each appeared as if from nowhere on-stage. This expert use of trickery made the tale appear even more magical and many in the audience gasped in disbelief at the visual master-class that was being acted out before their eyes. Being a musical of course the songs were also crucial to the story and the cast went from ballads to outright sing-a-longs in the vein of Mary Poppins or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. On the whole the songs were generally very good and aided by an orchestra conducted by David Steadman adeptly helped the story move along at a suitable pace. Now being a tale of redemption there were of course several moments where the heart-strings were required to be pulled. On the whole these were handled very effectively and in particular you couldn’t help be moved when introduced to Scrooge’s past and the realisation that his descent began with the loss of the love of his life.

Other moments though were handled with far too much American style sentimentality and the performance of Tiny Tim was cringe worthy at best. Now that’s not to say the young lad that played him wasn’t talented but with this interpretation even the softest of souls would want to strangle him. Having said that judging by the amount of ‘Awes’ from the audience this reviewer may have been the only one with more in common with the lead character than he would care to admit!! Humour, luckily, was readily on hand to balance out the schmaltz and any sickly sweet moments were easily forgotten with pantomime style comedy so suited to the festive season.

Overall this was a thoroughly enjoyable musical and good family friendly fun that was as innocent as it was amusing. Richie is undoubtedly the star but stellar performances from other members of the cast also fight for the audience attention. ‘Thank-you very much’ the cast sang at the end of the performance and fighting the urge to skip down the street wishing people Merry Christmas this reviewer couldn’t help but think that they had done a good job.

Bah Humbug!! Not likely…