Jesse Koopman
A close-up of La Shawn Banks as Scrooge.
La Shawn Banks gives us a miserable, miserly Scrooge.
There are some holiday traditions that are perfect just the way they are: decorating sugar cookie snowmen with too much frosting and sprinkles. Watching little kids dressed in velvet and satin perform the annual Sunday school nativity pageant. Sipping a mug of hot cocoa as you try to untangle fifteen slightly different strands of lights for the tree. But sometimes, shaking up a well worn tradition is just what the holidays need.
This is definitely the case with Children’s Theater of Madison’s new adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, playing in the Capitol Theater at Overture Center through December 23. Written by Charlotte T. Martin, directed and choreographed by Brian Cowing, this version punches up the music, dancing and magic in the well known story of Scrooge and the array of ghosts who visit him on Christmas Eve. It also adds some new characters, expands or alters backstories and skips over much of the “prologue” to get to the action of the story sooner. A complete departure visually from CTM’s recent iterations, this production celebrates light, the love and connections of family, and the potential we all have to be more generous and caring towards others.
Without giving away too much, here are some of the new twists on the classic tale that make CTM’s A Christmas Carol an exciting way to celebrate the season.
The look. The most stunning thing about this new version is the complete departure in look and feel from previous productions. The stage is a blank slate, where small pieces of furniture are whisked off and on only when necessary, instead of being dominated by an enormous, practical, two-story set. Now the proscenium is filled with 84 lanterns of various sizes and the only constants onstage are traditional street lamps. Scenic designer Christopher Dunham and lighting designer Greg Hofmann use the gorgeous arc of lanterns to great effect, to amplify the action onstage and illuminate the scenes in many different color combinations and intensities. Costume designer Shelley Cornia has performed her own Christmas miracle in outfitting the cast of 25 with beautiful, period-appropriate clothing in unifying color palettes. From the lowly pinafores of the Cratchit daughters, to the powdered wig and peacock feathers of the Fezziwigs, to the ball gowns that twirl at festive parties in two different time periods, the attention to detail is exquisite and the overall stage picture is delightfully cohesive. And her renderings of the three spirits are divine in their festive excess, including two enormous shimmering bows that comprise the Ghost of Christmas Past’s costume — which even light up!
The lamplighters. In developing the new script, Brian Cowing was inspired by another Dickens short story focusing on lamplighters in 19th century London. He suggested adding this somewhat mysterious guild to the Christmas Carol story as a group who looked after one another and the community around them. The lamplighters actually begin the show with a jaunty song, each member easily identifiable by a yellow kerchief, apron, or other bit of attire. (Props once again to costume designer Cornia.) The idea that they run London from the shadows, intervening with help when they can, is an intriguing one, and linking the lamplighters to Scrooge’s ghostly visitors is clever, although they don’t feel fully integrated into the story yet.
The cast. In other years CTM’s A Christmas Carol has had an enormous cast stuffed with young performers and thespians of many different skill levels. That is not the case here. From La Shawn Banks’s miserable, miserly Scrooge to Ben Haden’s bright, inspirational Tim, this cast of 11 adults and 15 young performers is solid, with actors moving easily between multiple characters as necessary. Standouts include Clare Arena Haden in three roles, including a feisty Mrs. Cratchit; Ogunde Tremayne and Jennifer Vosters as equally joyful and demanding spirits of Christmas Past and Present; Nathan Connor as a menacing Jacob Marley; and the truly luminous Isabelle Bushue as Belle, who captures Scrooge’s heart and captivates audiences in each of her scenes.
The dancing. Brian Cowing is not only a capable director, he is also a gifted choreographer who works wonders with crowd scenes that erupt in festive dances — and that happens regularly throughout this Christmas Carol. With Mrs. Fezziwig leading the rest of the revelers in playful routines, the elaborate dance at the Christmas ball is an intricate spectacle, performed with both joy and precision. From formal waltzes to jigs, the cast looks polished and professional, filling up the stage with delightful capers and reminding us that the holidays are about celebrating together.
The script. Charlotte T. Martin, who actually performed in CTM’s A Christmas Carol as a youngster, deserves a lot of credit for tackling this task; adapting a story that is much better known through its myriad of versions than by the original, overly dense source material. They have succeeded in adding new characters and scenes to surprise us and expanding on the relationships of Scrooge, Belle, and Marley, while preserving most of the familiar characters and their signature lines. They have also updated some of the language, removed Tim’s physical disability to match modern sensibilities, and condensed sections of the story that are repetitive, while preserving the flavor of Dickensian London. And putting Scrooge inside his memory scenes is a nice device to round out his character, especially since we don’t get to know him very well before the spirits arrive.
But the tone of the lines drawn straight from Dickens’s novella often clashes with Martin’s additions, making the scenes sound disjointed or anachronistic. In adding bits here and there and removing other passages, overall pacing also becomes an issue. Mid-way through the second act the story still sags a bit, although the play within a play that Tim writes, directs and performs with his siblings is a lovely addition thematically.
The fact that the spirits appear, not just to frighten Scrooge, but to hold him accountable for his actions, is another slight shift that supports the larger message of this Christmas Carol — the welfare of our fellow men should be our business every day of the year. That is a message that feels as timely now as when Dickens was writing.
