Scrooge the Pantomime

~~For some reason this seems to be the year of taking a musical and turning it into a pantomime. This can be confusing…. it is as though someone else has the TV gadget and you are channel surfing without realising. Wellington’s home grown panto was opened by the warm hearted Dottie Dilber with an explanation of the plot; this was handled well and put the Christmas Carol story in to context of panto, which the audience accepted with affability. A cheery smiling company lit up the stage in the opening number and the pace was swift and punchy right through to the finale. Scrooge himself was very much the Dickensian gent lost in a mad capped wold and this worked well with the visiting spectres bringing their own characterisation to the plot. Jacob Marley a cross between Michael Jackson and The Mad hatter caused much mirth and brought youthful energy to the stage. Christmas Past with his warmth of character and voice cheered the heart while Christmas Yet to Come caused shivers and discomfort. The technical wizardry during the visits showed one of the company’s strengths to best effect, the visit of Christmas Past being beautifully stage and lit to great effect. The rather funky Cratchit family worked together as a unit although the trimming of certain scenes may help the flow of the production if revisited as the running jokes began to fall flat on the third visit to their home. Musically the production was strong even with some interesting changes to lyrics. Visually pleasing and full of fun this production warmed the cold January evening, it made you want a revisit to December the 25th…… we will all just have to wait until next year.

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