Holiday Cheer
Tennessee Rep’s talent-packed production lends depth to Dickens’ Christmas classic
by Martin Brady
A Christmas Carol
Presented by Tennessee Repertory Theatre
Through Dec. 22 at TPAC’s Polk Theater
For ticket information, call 255-9600
Tennessee Repertory Theatre’s new production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is highly entertaining. The general spirit of holiday classicism is maintained throughout, and there are bounteous sets, quality costumes, some atmospheric special effects and appropriate musical interludes. Perhaps most gratifying about last Saturday evening’s performance is the fact that TPAC’s Polk Theater was filled well into the balcony, indicative of strong local support for classy Christmastime theatrical fare. The bottom-line critical response? It’s certainly worth the trip, and Nashville audiences are strongly encouraged to attend.
The tale of Ebenezer Scrooge is well worn, yet there’s something about Dickens that endures and endures. It’s automatic to call to mind all the story’s familiar characters and situations and, ultimately, its incredibly uplifting message. Yet Dickens never simply tells a story. On his broad canvases, he portrays eras; he seems to construct history as the English-speaking world has come to know it. Even in such a relatively modest fable as A Christmas Carol, he offers keen sociological observations about time and place—in this case, 19th century London. Out of darkness, and through his gift of creating indelible characters, Dickens gives us light and a sense that we’ve really learned about humanity.
This particular adaptation is by the Rep’s former associate artistic director, Todd Olson, who has also directed the proceedings. (In the wake of the Rep’s consolidation with TPAC, Olson has moved on to a similar position at American Stage in St. Petersburg, Fla.; his work here is as a guest artist.) Drawing on various other stage and film versions, he gets all the famous and familiar details right. Ol’ Ebenezer is a first-class miser who mistreats everybody he knows, including his sole employee, lovable family man Bob Cratchit. We hear his horribly callous pronouncements about “reducing the surplus population,” and we glimpse his particularly heinous treatment of a poverty-stricken man who owes him money. Then ghosts visit Scrooge, and their presentiments induce in him a change of heart.
These are the obvious, commonly known plot elements. Yet we are also effectively pulled into the psychological morass responsible for Scrooge’s misanthropic mind-set. Sometimes we can forget the background of the Scrooge story, and this staging does well to remind us that Scrooge—whose mother died giving birth to him—had a painful childhood and learned early the lessons of financial struggle. He also tragically lost his beloved sister, Fan, who died giving birth to his nephew Fred. Sigmund Freud—whose psychological theories came long after A Christmas Carol—would no doubt have had a field day with both the younger and the older Ebenezer. But Dickens does very well without benefit of the analyst’s couch, and it is fulfilling, in the Rep’s reading, to ponder the deeper context of Scrooge’s troubled nature. So, then, are we able to celebrate his redemption and maybe to consider for our very selves the lesson—bittersweet though it may be—that it’s never too late to change, to care, to love, to be a mensch.
This production is carried on the wings of Dickens’ gargantuan talent and crystalline vision. Olson’s adaptation is sound, and his direction is sure-handed. Furthermore, Gary C. Hoff’s sets are, as expected, lovely and mechanically clever. With a few exceptions—in particular, an oddly behorned Ghost of Christmas Present—Jim Alford’s many costumes look great (and authentically of the period). In addition, Rudi Aldridge lights the play with style. This Christmas Carol is richly produced and very rewarding.
There are many marvelous performances from a cast of more than two dozen very talented locals, who double up on the show’s many roles. Standouts include Henry Haggard as a sympathetic Cratchit, Brian Webb Russell as the young Scrooge, Matt Chiorini as nephew Fred, Cecil Jones as Fezziwig and Matthew Carlton as Scrooge’s business partner, Jacob Marley. Others deserving of mention for warmhearted and welcomely varied work in roles large and small include Christian Whelan, Glory Kissel, Jeremy Childs, Nathan Lacey, Holly Shepherd, Rachael Halfhill, Julie Rowe, Margaret Durkovic, Brooke Bryant and Rachel Agee. The child performers in the cast acquit themselves well, notable among them young Noah Rice and Wesley Stiles, who perform on alternating evenings as Tiny Tim.
If there’s a “Bah, humbug!” to be leveled here, it’s done so—in the spirit of the season—haltingly. For despite some noticeable shortcomings, David Grapes as Scrooge can’t quite kill the overall charming effect of this production. The role of Scrooge demands subtlety; Grapes, the Rep’s producing artistic director, displays little of that, and his characterization—which at first blush appears agreeably straightforward, sober and in tune with the Olson adaptation—devolves into a series of cartoonish double-takes. The role of Scrooge also demands the evocation of heart-filling, almost overwhelming poignancy, but Grapes’ broad mugging and hammy attempts at humor don’t come even close to making us feel what we ought. The large audience did laugh at his antics, yet the depth and beauty of Scrooge is that the smiles his character provokes should be accompanied by earnest tears. Instead, this approach to portraying Scrooge almost strictly as a buffoon sacrifices meaning and depth for a few cheap guffaws.
It raises a question, one difficult to answer: How does director Olson reconcile this performance with what appears to be his otherwise very traditional approach to the script? The answer may lie in the simple fact that Grapes is declaiming Dickens, and given the material at hand, the director felt that his star actor could take a few liberties. Indeed, enough goodness comes through that we’ll withhold that lump of coal from Grapes’ Christmas stocking.
This Christmas Carol might have been great, but it’s still good enough to be savored.
Broadway bound—again
In a bit of good news for one of Nashville’s own, actor and singer Mike Eldred recently embarked for New York City, where he’ll be joining the Broadway cast of Les Misérables for the final three months of the show’s run. Eldred—who previously performed on Broadway in the musical The Civil War—will be understudying J. Mark McVey in the role of Valjean.
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