[NEohioPAL] Review of CVLT's "Scrooge"

[Bob Abelman]

There's more gravy than grave in CVLT's 'Scrooge'

 

Bob Abelman

 

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

The Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier

Member, American Theatre Critics Association 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 11/25/11

 

 

Yes, it's Thanksgiving, but it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  Small town storefronts are starting their seasonal transformation into Currier & Ives lithographs and community theater marquees are promoting yuletide favorites.

  

The holiday musical currently on stage at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre is Scrooge, an adaptation of the 1970 film based on Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol.  The script, music and lyrics are by Leslie Bricusse, whose other family-friendly works include Doctor Doolittle and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

 

Scrooge tells the tale of the epic personal journey of its miserly title character.  In the play, Ebenezer Scrooge's diminished spirit is rejuvenated and his darkened soul is salvaged after revisiting the missed opportunities of Christmas past, witnessing the wasted potential of Christmas present, and foreseeing the horrors of Christmas future. 

  

As with Doolittle and Wonka, Scrooge consists of rather simple and occasionally insipid songs, which manage to downsize Dickens' complex themes and weighty subject matter.  Ebenezer's dramatic sturm und drang, for example, is reduced to tunes with the titles "I Hate People" and "I Like Life."  Sick and destitute Tiny Tim's eternal optimism is watered down to the lite but lovely "The Beautiful Day."  

   

What makes this rather mediocre musical such an enjoyable piece of holiday entertainment is the remnant charm from its A Christmas Carol origins and the wave of good cheer generated by the cast and crew of this CVLT production. 

 

Edmond Wolff's scenic backdrop of a Victorian skyscape resembles an embossed Christmas cookie tin and generates the same nostalgic warm and fuzzy feelings.  Together with attractive period costuming by Harold Crawford, the play unfolds in an inviting musical theater mockup of 19th century London.  

 

The cast includes several members from and multiple generations of local families, including the Bernardos and Edwards from Chagrin Falls, the Firehammers from Solon, the Grossbergs from Auburn, the O'Malleys from South Russell, the Sloops from Willowick, and assorted members of the Mulvaney and Willis clans from Aurora.

  

As a family affair, the performers take delight in each other's on-stage antics and this unconditional exuberance (and, in some cases, forgiveness) is contagious.  In this context, even a random act of nose-picking by a two year old in the ensemble, performed dead-center stage and oblivious to the elaborate production number surrounding her, is embraced and deemed adorable.

 

Of course, this production also possesses some particularly noteworthy performances, including those by Casey Sloop as Tiny Tim, Jon Gellott as Scrooge's Nephew/Young Scrooge, Don Bernardo as the Ghost of Christmas Present, Sarah Sloop as Mrs. Cratchit, and Brian Diehl as Jacob Marley.  The musicians, under the astute direction of David Keith Stiver, are wonderful as well.

 

Best of all is Paul Sloop as Ebenezer Scrooge.  Sloop's Scrooge expectorates his words as if they are sour to the taste but does so with reluctance, as if he finds each acidic syllable too valuable to waste on his unworthy neighbors.  This and his transformation from a despicable grouch to born-again humanitarian are a pleasure to watch.

 

Less pleasurable are the show's production numbers.  Although the ensemble is enthusiastic and energetic in all that they do, director Michael Rogan and choreographer Laura Rightnour-Henri coordinate their actions as if directing traffic.  The goal appears to be an avoidance of accidents rather than the creation of interesting and fluid patterns of activity.   Even the more intimate musical numbers are rather void of purposeful movement to facilitate the storytelling. There's just way too much standing around. 

 

Despite this production's shortcomings, there are few better theatrical concoctions for the holidays than unbridled sentimentality, a strong moral message, and a happy ending set to music and told by neighbors and friends.  Scrooge will never be a holiday classic, but it is based on one and finds merit in the merriment of its presentation.   

 

Scrooge continues through December 18 at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, 56 River Street, Chagrin Falls.  For tickets, $14 to $18, call 440-247-8955 or visit www.cvlt.org.
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