‘A Christmas Carol: The Musical’

Playful Theatre Productions presents this version of the Dickens classic at Kelsey Theatre.

By: Stuart Duncan
   You begin to wonder just what Charles Dickens might think about all of the variations of his touching novella A Christmas Carol. We have had multiple versions of the work — as a straight play, a delicious satire (Inspecting Carol) and many tries at a musical (Scrooge, for example), plus movies in every form through the years. The latest bastardization is titled A Christmas Carol: The Musical and it popped up a couple of years back, created by people who really should have known better.
   Lynn Ahrens, who wrote the music and collaborated on the book, wrote Ragtime, and Alan Menken, who wrote the lyrics, did Disney proud with Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. For this one, they skipped the creativity part and went for television money. Playful Theatre Productions, which also has done some fine work in the past, has staged the piece and it is at Kelsey Theatre on the campus of Mercer County Community College.
   Let us begin with the saving graces: The show runs only 80 minutes (with intermission), fashioned that way to fit a TV format. That rather naturally manages to leave out much of the character development that made Dickens such a fine artist, but never mind, in this case brief is good. It also has a few outstanding singing voices in a company that seems unwieldy. James Petro, as Bob Cratchit, is outstanding and has a superb voice, although you may well miss any understanding of what makes the Cratchit family so appealing since the script simply doesn’t permit it. John Shanken-Kaye does a yeoman job as Scrooge, but again the abbreviated script takes away any glimpse of his complicated character.
   But the Jacob Marley scenes provide TV fodder, thus we get the old miser accompanied by no less than four acolytes, all bedecked with chains so we can have a lively dance. Later we will have four senior elves and four junior ones — you guessed it, another dance. A Fezziwig party scene at least allows the talented Tom Bessellieu to show some of his prowess.
   Co-director Mike Wills comes from a television background (no surprise there — in fact, he works for MTV Networks). So we have a lot of performers lined up in straight lines or box shapes as if waiting for close-ups. (Suzanne Smith, the other half of the team, is vice president of Playful Theatre Productions.) Credit sound engineer Tom Seeland for some good work with microphones, and bless some youngsters who are not afraid of being heard. But Dickens deserves better than this. Bring on the next couple of weeks and stagings at George Street and McCarter.
Christmas Carol: The Musical continues at Kelsey Theatre, Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road, West Windsor, through Dec. 4. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Tickets cost $16, $12 seniors, $10 students. For information, call (609) 584-9444. On the Web: www.kelseytheatre.net