A Christmas Carol @ Dallas Theater Center
—Martha Heimberg
Scrooge is as mean as ever. And his ghosts are back in the flesh to chastise, comfort and terrorize the cold, miserly businessman through a dramatic transformation into a warm, caring human being. And it all happens on a Christmas eve. Overnight redemption. We never tire of that possibility.
Dallas Theater Center’s production of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol is especially moving following two years of a pandemic that has had many of us reflecting on our own journeys and choices in chaotic times, not unlike Dicken’s own world of rapid industrialization and merciless harnessing of workers to power London’s swelling capitalism. What about now? Can we make right so many wrongs? The questions haunt us like Dickens’ ghosts.
Director Christie Vela, using Kevin Moriarty’s adaptation of the classic story, begins the show with a small child sweetly singing a Christmas song in Spanish on the floor of a huge menacing factory, on a three-story set designed by Beowulf Boritt, that reeks of smoke and glows with orange furnaces. Workers of all ages and genders appear through the haze. High above them on a catwalk stalks Ebenezer Scrooge (Raphael Parry), surveying his murky kingdom, shouting at stumbling workers and thumbing through his accounts.
Vela moves us through Scrooge’s familiar journey swiftly, with the diverse, physical cast coming and going through the audience aisles, and up staircases into the rafters. It’s thrilling to be surrounded by this vigorous ensemble, costumed handsomely as poor laborers and rich folk by Jen Caprio.
Carols become part of the story, and everybody in the company sings, sometimes in Spanish!, under the upbeat musical direction of Vonda K. Bowling. Choreographer Joel Ferrell fills the stage with movement and energy, whether it’s a spontaneous jig with workers on holiday or fancy folk waltzing in circles at party.
Vela’s hell-fire spirits can scare even a money-grubbing man like Scrooge into rethinking his cynical ideas about the fate of the poor. Brace yourself, o ye of tiny tips. The spooky highlight of the show is Shawn Gann’s hair-raising appearance as the Ghost of Marley, groaning in agony and bound in chains he hauls behind him as he pants and screams his warnings to his old partner. Hell’s furnace is not so different from the fires blazing in Scrooge’s factory. Jeff Croiter’s lighting design is so keen, you can almost feel the heat from your seat.
Molly Searcy is an exquisite Ghost of Christmas Past, leading Scrooge with her kind smile and forgiving arms into a world he’s left behind. When she takes him to his old schoolmaster or to the Fezziwigs’ joyful apprentice party, she looks on tenderly, always seeing the good he once longed for.
Sally Nystuen Vahle, as the Ghost of Christmas Present, is right there and then some. Outfitted in a glittering green and gold pants outfit with a horned headdress, she enters to a bassoon solo -- something between a vamping Viking and a grown-up elf. Mocking and alluring at once, this wily spirit takes Scrooge to see what the people he knows really think of him. Vahle grins knowingly when Scrooge’s nephew Fred (an elegant Omar Padilla) throws out a riddle to his party guests hinting at his uncle’s identity. She knows the answer before it’s spoken.
Parry’s Scrooge is more greedy than cruel, counting his money in his spectacles and annoyed by Bob Cratchit (a patient Lee George) when his foreman asks for one day off. Parry comes into his own after his nightmare visits into the sad past and horrific future, and he realizes he has lived to see another Christmas day. His eyes light up, his red cheeks glow with relief, and he dances up and down the stage like the happy boy he never was as a young child.
Caroling, singing for joy, is the essence of the show, and there are a number of strong singers in the ensemble, including Zachry J. Willis, Cameron Cobb, Tiffany Solano, as a feisty Mrs. Cratchit, and Christina Austin Lopez, as Fred’s winsome fiancé.
We leave the theater feeling optimistic about mankind’s essential kindness because of the tale we just witnessed. And because we learn that the show has raised over $900,000 for the North Texas Food Bank since it began partnering with the organization 10 years ago. Now that’s something to sing about.
Running through December 26th; more info at https://www.dallastheatercenter.org/show/a-christmas-carol-2021/
