By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com
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photo from Arizona Theatre Company
Londoners on Christmas Eve, filled with the Spirit of the Season.
"The Nutcracker” will have some competition this holiday season as a must-see event. Arizona Theatre Company has put together a sparkling and expansive version of Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol” that feels vibrant as Santa's own shopping list and pretty as a Christmas card.
With hopes that ATC's production will also become a Tucson yuletide tradition, the company has opened “Scrooge! The Musical.” The beloved tale of miserly Scrooge's transformation into that most jovial of Christmas spirits now comes with joyfully leaping Londoners singing and dancing in their jaunty top hats and finest frocks.
Shuler Hensley is cast in the title role, bringing the experience of a Broadway actor and operatic performer who has played opposite Patti LuPone at the Kennedy Center, with the New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony orchestras.
The gradual melting of Hensley's scowling “humbug” Scrooge attitude while being forced to reconsider his dedicated penny-pinching lifestyle takes place amid stage effects that keep topping themselves one eye-catching turn after another.
These dizzying sets of scenic designer Jason Ardizzone-West exceed all expectations, a cinematic statement of techniques reaching beyond mere reproductions of period furniture and fanciful scenarios, combining computerized effects that often feel three-dimensional.
No matter whether it is the city's cheery streets or Scrooge's own flights into darker phantasms of past, present and future, everything always feels larger than the theater itself.
So it becomes the players, directed by ATC's own artistic director Matt August, who serve up all the joy of human kindness. A cast of 28 singers, dancers and townspeople bringing a full portion of the season's joyful sauce to the stage.
From strolling carolers brightening their holiday alfresco to the enthusiastic guests at Fezziwig's Christmas party, music is always in the air while a pit orchestra enhanced by three keyboards provides full symphonic accompaniment.
The late English composer and writer Leslie Bricusse is credited with the book, music and lyrics. August himself has fine-tuned the material, working with the Bricusse Estate. In the program notes is the promise that still more will be added for next year's production of “Scrooge! The Musical.”
The program notes also list 19 musical numbers, ranging from Scrooge's insular declaration “I Hate People” to his fully anticipated, “I'll Begin Again.”
Now there is a buoyancy to the atmosphere as we follow along the familiar journey from Jacob Marley's dire Christmas Eve warning to the visitations of those three spirits.
Playing the Ghost of Jacob Marley is Stewart Gregory. The Ghost of Christmas Past is Karmine Alers, the Ghost of Christmas Present is Geoffrey F. Belliston, the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is J Savage.
“Scrooge! The Musical” runs through Dec. 2, with performances at various times Wednesdays through Sundays in the downtown Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. Run time is approximately two hours, including intermission.
Tickets are $25-$100. For additional details and reservations, 833-ATC-SEAT (282-7328).
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