THE BASICS: I just finished seeing four different stage productions of Charles Dickens’ novella whose full title is: A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. I was hoping for this review to be able to rank them somehow, best to worst, but, in truth, each was good in its own way, reminding me of Scrooge’s nephew Fred who says: “And though it has never put a scrap of gold in my pocket, I believe it has done me good and will do me good, and I say God bless it!”
So, let’s review them in the order in which I saw them this Christmas 2023, first The Shaw Festival, then The Alleyway Theatre, followed by D’Youville University’s Kavinoky Theatre, and then at the American Repertory Theater. (See below for listings.) There is still one performance “whose coming was foretold to me,” a performance “yet to come” for one night only on December 22 and that will be at The Riviera Theatre in Tonawanda.
Which one should you go see? As Mark Twain once wrote: “You pays yer money and you takes yer choice.” (Read on for more about Mark Twain and Charles Dickens below.)
Runtimes varied only slightly across the theaters, with each performance about two hours including one intermission. And, while Shaw’s version appears to be mostly sold out and the Kavinoky’s is finished for this season, I’m sure that both will be back again next year, so read on and make plans for the Christmas yet to come, knowing that there are still seats available now at the Alleyway and American Repertory Theaters.
AT THE SHAW FESTIVAL: Shawfest’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL, adapted and originally directed by Shaw Artistic Director Tim Carroll, continues through December 23, 2023 at The Shaw Festival’s Royal George Theatre, 85 Queen Street, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. As of this Wednesday, December 13, while there are fifteen (15!) performances remaining, either at 1:00 pm or 7:00 pm, almost all appear to be sold out. Still, it might be worth visiting their website or calling (1-800-511-7429) to check on cancellations. This play came in at 1 hour, 45 minutes including one intermission and was recommended for Grade 1+ or Age 6+ with seats costing over $95 U.S. funds. Note that while this play may be sold out, at the Shawfest’s nearby, much larger Festival Theatre, seats are available for the musical BRIGADOON.
SHAWFEST PLAYERS, THE PLAY, AND THE PRODUCTION: Any production by The Shaw Festival will be innovative, full of delightful moments, cleverly staged, and extremely well-rehearsed. This is what you get with a well-funded established repertory theater using full-time professional actors and A CHRISTMAS CAROL was at Shawfest’s high standards.
Like Buffalo’s Edwardian-era Kavinoky Theatre built in 1903, the 1915 Royal George is a charming old-fashioned proscenium theater with enchanting nooks and crannies and special side entrances. It’s ideal for an “old-time” show but this production is a mix of Dickensian-era costumes with very modern stage effects. The two sets are innovative: one is a wall full of doors, numbered as if it were an Advent calendar, out of which pop actors as needed, and in front of which actors become the furniture in Ebenezer Scrooge’s business, very clever, and with sound effects it generated a lot of laughs..Once the “wall” is raised, centered on a bare stage is a four-part structure that begins as Scrooge’s four-poster curtained bed, but then becomes a variety of sets, depending on how the walls are moved, with several surprising reveals. All of the actors are top-notch, but favorites seen over the years were Sanjay Talwar as Scrooge and Jonathan Tan as his nephew Fred. Like most of the other shows reviewed here, the audience is treated to multiple Christmas carols throughout the performance.
AT THE ALLEYWAY: A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens, adapted by Neal Radice, the annual (41 years running!) presentation by The Alleyway Theatre opened on December 6 and runs through Christmas Eve, December 24, 2023. Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30, Saturdays at 2:00 and 5:00, and Sundays at 2:00. The theater is located at “1 Curtain Up Alley” (adjacent to Shea’s north wall). (716) 852-2600 alleyway.com I’d say it’s suitable for Grade 1+ or Age 6+ with seats costing $43 for adults, $30 for those under 30.
ALLEYWAY PLAYERS, THE PLAY, AND THE PRODUCTION: If you want Christmas carols, you get quite the show at the Alleyway. Starting about 20 minutes before showtime, a mixed quartet (SATB), begins singing in the lobby (hot chocolate can be purchased at the bar) and then invites you to follow them into the theater where they continue, even encouraging some casual audience sing-along towards the end. (On the night I went, Alleyway founder Neal Radice was attending and what a voice he has.) As the carolers take you from the lobby, then into the theater, moving up onto the stage, suddenly one of the quartet, Marty Gartz, becomes Charles Dickens, the author himself, who begins with those famous words: “Marley was dead: to begin with… old Marley was as dead as a doornail…” and we’re off!
Just as with the Shawfest’s production, or most movie productions, this production, written by Neal Radice 41 years ago, covers all the major plot points. The Victorian costumes are well appointed and in the case of the Spirit of Christmas Present quite spectacular. I have to admit that having just visited Shawfest, and not having seen the Alleyway production in years, I went in thinking that I might be in for a “second-best” production. I’m here to report that I was so wrong. It’s marvelous. And, if you haven’t been back to The Alleyway in the past 41 years, then go. This year’s “special sauce” may have come from actor Bob Bozek who plays among other roles a quite energetic Marley’s ghost and a hilariously stupid guest “Topper” at Fred Scrooge’s (Andrew J. Brown) dinner party. Gravelly-voiced David C. Mitchell is back for his 11th season as Scrooge, heading up a strong cast, too numerous to name, but including the vocal quartet who between them take on ten different roles: Lauren McGowan, Emily Yancey, Roger VanDette, and Marty Gartz.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens, a staged reading by Mike Randall at D’Youville University’s Kavinoky Theatre, ran December 8,9, and 10 ( Friday at 7:30, Saturday at 3:30, Sunday at 2:00 at 320 Porter Ave, Buffalo, NY 14201. (716) 829-7668 kavinokytheatre.com/
KAVINOKY PLAYER, THE PLAY, AND THE PRODUCTION: Here Mike Randall takes on the role of author Charles Dickens (just as he has played author Mark Twain for decades) complete with make-up and costume, and presents what Buffalo audiences must have experienced over 150 years ago when Dickens himself came, not just to America, but to Buffalo specifically to see Niagara Falls. Having just seen somewhat similar stage treatments at both the Shaw Festival and The Alleyway Theatre I was fascinated to hear the “source material” upon which Shaw’s Artistic Director Carroll and Alleyway’s (former) Artistic Director drew. Dickens organized his story into four “Staves” and most people have seen a Hollywood movie made from a favorite book and know that the book has so much more fine, granular detail than the scriptwriter can include. That’s the case here. If Mike Randall comes back to this role next year (and I hope that he does) you should make a point of going. I’m glad that I went, especially because the next day I went to a multiple-authored presentation of the same story presented by The American Repertory Theatre, melding the efforts of a dozen playwrights which I might not have appreciated as much as I did had I not just heard the original Dickens text aloud. Which brings us to….
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, billed as “The language of Charles Dickens’ Victorian classic tale collides with contemporary language, through this retelling of the age-old Christmas story of greed, false love, and squandered redemption.” Presented by ART of WNY (American Repertory Theatre) which opened on December 7 and runs through Dec 23, 2023 Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 pm, and Saturdays at 5:00 pm at the Compass Performing Arts space, 545 Elmwood Avenue. (716) 697-0837 artofwny.org All tickets are $25, at the door or online (Venmo only). Content warning: R – Adult Language; Adult Situations.
From the somewhat giddy review elsewhere in the publication I wondered what flaws the ecstatic reviewer may have been attempting to hide, but after seeing the show, I have to agree with his overall sentiment and can highly recommend this piece, an adaptation and arrangement overseen by Matthew LaChiusa. The one page handout has a link, which you may want to click on before you go. Sticking to the same tried and true plot points that Shaw’s Carroll and Alleyway’s Radice used, this truly collaborative labor of love had a dozen different Buffalo playwrights (including LaChiusa) take on as many different scenes. They are, in the order presented, for Act 1, Stave 1, J.B. Stone, Ben Brindise, Umar Azam, and Heather Ackerman, and for Stave 2 Helena Torres, and Ellen Catherine Falank. For Act 2, Stave 3, Noah Doktor, Tyler Collis, and j. Snodgrass, and for Stave 4 Umar Azam and Justin Karcher, all coordinated by Matthew LaChiusa. One piece of “glue” holding it all together was a marvelous portrayal of Scrooge by Robert Insana. I had feared that we might be in for wildly avant-garde “performance art” and hyper-idiosyncratic interpretations but was very pleasantly surprised at how it all held together as each author respected the language of the original. If you want an affordable CHRISTMAS CAROL (with generous portions at the bar I’m told) then I highly recommend this for mature teens and older.
FUN FACT: I began this review quoting Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn with: “You pays yer money and you takes yer choice.” And, knowing that the two were roughly contemporary, I looked into it and found that Twain and Dickens certainly could have met face to face, but never did, even though Twain toured England and Dickens toured America, twice. However, Samuel Clemens (who by 1863 was writing as “Mark Twain”) did attend one of Dickens’ public readings at Steinway Hall in New York City on New Year’s Eve, 1867. Dickens was 55, Clemens was only 32 at the time but both had much in common including, over their careers, writing wildly popular 19th century novels and short stories with an uncanny ear for dialect, going on lucrative speaking tours, and both were, in their way, attempting to improve society. Twain did it mostly through satire and Dickens mostly through revealing the hidden underbelly of civilization, just as in the Dickens story and subsequent adaptations, the two children under the robes of Christmas Present are “Ignorance and Want”. However, even though to my mind they are similar, 32-year-old Twain’s opinion of Dickens’ story was “There is no heart. No feeling – it is nothing but glittering frostwork.” Hah! It was not lost on me that Mike Randall, who presents A CHRISTMAS CAROL as a monologue in the role of Charles Dickens himself, and has done so since 2007, since 1972 has been the presenter of his own one-man show “Mark Twain Live.”
I would give any one of these four shows a Four Buffalo rating.
Lead image: Sanjay Talwar as Ebenezer Scrooge, with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, in A Christmas Carol (Shaw Festival, 2023). Photo by David Cooper.
*HERD OF BUFFALO (Notes on the Rating System)
ONE BUFFALO: This means trouble. A dreadful play, a highly flawed production, or both. Unless there is some really compelling reason for you to attend (i.e. you are the parent of someone who is in it), give this show a wide berth.
TWO BUFFALOS: Passable, but no great shakes. Either the production is pretty far off base, or the play itself is problematic. Unless you are the sort of person who’s happy just going to the theater, you might look around for something else.
THREE BUFFALOS: I still have my issues, but this is a pretty darn good night at the theater. If you don’t go in with huge expectations, you will probably be pleased.
FOUR BUFFALOS: Both the production and the play are of high caliber. If the genre/content are up your alley, I would make a real effort to attend.
FIVE BUFFALOS: Truly superb–a rare rating. Comedies that leave you weak with laughter, dramas that really touch the heart. Provided that this is the kind of show you like, you’d be a fool to miss it!