A Christmas Carol the Musical

After their magnificent production of Evita in the summer MTS were straight back into rehearsals to produce this classic Christmas tale. Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” has been a favourite story of mine since childhood and I have always enjoyed all the variations based on the story. This musical version first produced at Madison Square Garden in 1994, rates as one of the best.  

With multiple minor roles, many of the cast were called up to played several roles, which showed the depth of their talent. However the success of this show relies on the on the ability of the person playing Ebenezer Scrooge and in this production I thought Robert Preedy was excellent. He looked so laid back and relaxed, a natural for the role. The team children were all excellent and the whole company were clearly enjoy themselves in this energetic show.

I feel that this show could have reached the standard of “Evita” had the company not been let down by the professionals in the orchestra pit, in particular the horn and trumpet players who for most of the performance were far too loud and often off key!  

In my early day in Am drams, a mentor of mine, frequently use to say 'We spent a great amount of time and energy putting together a show, and then we have pay a team of so called professional musicians to sit in the orchestra pit and spoil it for us'. I would imagine that is exactly how the cast of this wonderful production must feel, they deserved better.

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