Scrooge's Phantomime

You can imagine the discussion at the Committee meeting: “the show’s the last week in November, we could do “A Christmas Carol”; or “Scrooge – the Musical”.  “No, let’s do a pantomime –I know a man who writes them”.

I am not sure whether this accurately records the way in which this show was conceived but this marriage of the two ideas is the result. Does it work? Yes, it does - for a number of reasons.  Obviously, it owes its plot to a master story-teller but its conversion to this format is achieved with care in an excellent script by Mark Ellison. Whilst there are moments typical of pantomime, there are others which are not: I liked the use of a small group to provide some narration, almost in the style of a Greek chorus.  There were some good lines (“You wait ages for a ghost and then three come along at once”) and some interesting characters.  Chief amongst them is, of course, Scrooge himself; this brought an excellent performance from Peter Fletcher, seldom off stage but otherwise  working the audience in the company of one of the Ghosts, thus using his talent for comedy as well as his acting ability as the curmudgeonly old geezer with whom we are more familiar.            

How do you work in the usual pantomime Dame?  Well, as Bob Cratchit’s wife, of course, which then allows some amusing conversations between the couple, a good double act between Gordon Fawcett and Andy Lloyd as Mr and Mrs respectively. The latter quickly developed a good rapport with the audience from his first entrance and has a fine singing voice too.  A novel move was the casting of Jayne Fawcett as the chain-twirling ghost of Jacob Marley, a role she filled with great enthusiasm.  Poetic licence introduced us to David Copperfield (Catherine Marshall) as Scrooge’s nephew with aspirations towards the magical skills of his modern- day namesake, whilst other Dickensian characters also made brief appearances. There were good performances from Beverley Fletcher and Jo Hawkins as the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present. A large number of children were well directed and performed enthusiastically in several scenes.    

The music was a succession of Christmas favourites, from carols to the pop charts, albeit with sometimes revised words; for instance, Wizzard’s “I wish it could be Christmas every day became Scrooge’s lament “I wish I could make Christmas disappear”.  A quartet of piano, keyboards and percussion provided excellent accompaniment and the scenery provided the right atmosphere, whether Market Square, Scrooge’s office or bedroom. Costumes were excellent and, although the need for changes sometimes held up the action, this simply provided opportunities for more comedy front of cloth and this is pantomime after all.

A neat twist at the end reconciled Ebenezer with his childhood sweetheart as all ended happily with a sing-a-long reprise of the 12 Days of Christmas which required a similar number of so-called “volunteers” from the audience. I have to confess to being one of them, Bob Cratchit’s invitation being difficult to refuse, but I enjoyed that experience and, indeed, the whole evening.     

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