ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 7, 1996 TAG: 9612090100
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: THEATER REVIEW
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
For me, re-reading or watching a particularly lively film adaptation (the scarier, the better) of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" always helps remedy holiday cynicism and makes the mall seem very remote and unnecessary.
Once, I stayed up so late re-reading the book that I was awake when the snow began to fall outside my window about 4 a.m. Christmas Day.
Theatergoers who braved the quick, thick snowfall Thursday night were similarly rewarded by Mill Mountain Theatre's musical production of the holiday classic, a surprisingly fresh conception of a tale most of us know by heart.
This production, designed by John Sailer (costumes by Bob Croghan) is as handsome as a Victorian Christmas card. The set doesn't just use space wisely; it looks good doing it, as when the offices of Scrooge & Marley pull out from below a loft-type structure that functions as Scrooge's bedchamber.
Kids will love the way chain-rattling Marley leaves that room, seeming to fly off stage into the night.
But this production's best trick is the freshness it gives to the story, and the music has a lot to do with it. Milton Granger wrote the music and the lyrics, and, for the most part, the songs give the play a great deal of energy and wit without throwing it into perky-land.
"The Funeral Song," for example, gives Scrooge a glimpse of the future - without him. While the mourners mechanically intone, "poor man, poor man," they just can't muster any happy memories of the deceased at the preacher's bidding. Desperately, he looks to the beautiful winter sky, a truer source of inspiration than the life of a miser. By the number's end, the mourners are literally dancing on the dead man's grave, no real disrespect intended.
Patrick McCarthy's Scrooge finds just the right tone for the Christmas curmudgeon. He is especially wonderful on the morning of his redemption when he notices his bedposts and then his bed curtains and then one thing and another thing. His glee is infectious, but it's also convincing, as it must be.
The rest of the cast members, many of whom play more than one role, are uniformly good, especially Priscilla Quinby as Mrs. Cratchit, John Little as Bob Cratchit and Leslie Feagan as Marley. Robert Cardazone is a hoot as the parson, and the children are all terrific.
Director Jere Lee Hodgin has done a very good job of assembling this production and making it work.
There's not a hint of fatigue about the conception; it is every bit as inspired as it ought to be, and that makes it a perfect antidote to whatever ails you about the Christmas season.
``A Christmas Carol'': Through Dec. 29, Mill Mountain Theatre, Center in the Square, downtown Roanoke. Tickets: $18-$23. 342-5740.
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB