A small mining town is to all intents and purposes owned by Ebenezer Scrooge (Robert Bathurst,) who owns the coal mine that employs the whole town, the bank he pays their wages into, and the company store they have to pay them back to for their goods and groceries.
Scrooge underpays and overcharges, amassing a fortune that he doesn't spend, living in a freezing house and eating oatmeal (when his housekeeper adds raisins to it he grumbles at the extravagance.) He's contemptuous of anyone selfless, and particularly the Christmas spirit of goodwill to all. One Christmas Eve his business partner and mentor Jacob Marley (George Maguire) returns from the dead to warn him that he's in Hell (which he's... surprisingly jolly about to be honest) and in order for Scrooge to avoid the same fate, three spirits will teach him a lesson by showing him his Christmases past, present and future.
In all honesty I was expecting a show at least as camp at its title, which this isn't really. Parton's songs are the mix of barnstorming and emotional numbers that you would hope for, but Bell's book rarely matches them for energy or wit, despite some fun turns from Carole Stennett and Minal Patel as ghosts Past and Present, respectively. And while there isn't really any attempt to make the final, mute ghost scary, having the company's violinist step up, all in black, to play Christmas Future with the instrument as its means of communication is a creative, melancholy choice.
I do also have to give the adaptation credit for being faithful to the original in a surprising way: A Christmas Carol was Dickens making a pretty unsubtle sociopolitical statement and Bell's book is every bit as angry and unflinching about greed, inequality and the fact that those with the least are happy to give the most. I'm pretty sure these mining towns where the company controlled not only their employees' pay but how they got to spend it were a real thing, but there's also digs at forms of greed and corruption that are far from consigned to history - young Scrooge (Danny Whitehead) is first hired by Marley to cook his books.
It's unsurprising that the religious element is stressed but perhaps more surprising that, despite not going so far as to actually say the "S" word (Dolly's still got records to sell y'all,) there's a couple of forthright reminders that Christianity and Socialism share the same central message. That underlying tinge of real anger gives this a believable sincerity that means, despite Bathurst being a pretty bland Scrooge, I was still surprisingly moved by his redemption. If you go into this for a big comic romp you'll be disappointed, but if the camp side of Dolly isn't really in evidence the great music and genuine heart definitely are.
Dolly Parton's Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol by Dolly Parton, David H. Bell, Paul T. Couch and Curt Wollan, based on the story by Charles Dickens, is booking until the 8th of January at the South Bank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes including interval.
Photo credit: Manuel Harlan.
No one likes raisins in anything, if she'd put currants or sultanas in the oarmeal then he would have slept soundly... but then it wouldn't have been much of a story. And wouldn't have gotten to hear the touching "Three Candles" which I have to say was my favourite. None of the songs feel crowbarred in either.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes add a snack pack of raisins to my Oatso Simple, I just don't eat it ten seconds before going to sleep and give myself indigestion.
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