A Christmas Carol or Not
I surprised the Espousa with tickets for the Children's Theatre of Madison's production of A Christmas Carol this evening. I picked her up at home and went downtown toward the UW campus. We had a nice, quiet dinner at one of our favorite Italian spots and then proceeded to the theatre.
The Children's Theatre is a misnomer regarding this production. There are children in the Cratchitt family and these children also played street urchins, but it was largely an adult cast. I was first surprised to see the show done as a musical. In my ignorance, I was unaware that Carol has been done as a musical. It went downhill from there. The Espousa was every other line leaning over asking what had just been said onstage. The actors sometimes delivered their lines with their backs to the audience. Others seemingly whispered. The musical numbers dragged on. They seemed like absolute fill and stretching. The numbers didn't add anything, they just seemed plopped down because it was time for another music and/or dance piece. The actor playing Fred, Scrooge's nephew, either had or affected a lisp doing his best Gussie Finknottle impression of Jeeves and Wooster fame.
Intermission arrived, the Espousa wanted a drink of water, so we headed to the lobby. Upon returning, to my dread, I uttered words I have never said before in my life. "Do you want to leave?" "Yeah...let's go home."
I have only walked out of one other production of any kind in my life and that was a film back in the 70's, The Life of Brian. The Espousa's critique walking back to the car was brutal. "Talking with their backs to the audience...no projection...dead silence for unnatural lengths with actors onstage."
I did a fair amount of community theatre back in high school and I kept wondering what one of the directors that I had worked under would have said during rehearsals about the sloppiness of this production. Yikes! I thought I had blocked that all out.
The Children's Theatre is a misnomer regarding this production. There are children in the Cratchitt family and these children also played street urchins, but it was largely an adult cast. I was first surprised to see the show done as a musical. In my ignorance, I was unaware that Carol has been done as a musical. It went downhill from there. The Espousa was every other line leaning over asking what had just been said onstage. The actors sometimes delivered their lines with their backs to the audience. Others seemingly whispered. The musical numbers dragged on. They seemed like absolute fill and stretching. The numbers didn't add anything, they just seemed plopped down because it was time for another music and/or dance piece. The actor playing Fred, Scrooge's nephew, either had or affected a lisp doing his best Gussie Finknottle impression of Jeeves and Wooster fame.
Intermission arrived, the Espousa wanted a drink of water, so we headed to the lobby. Upon returning, to my dread, I uttered words I have never said before in my life. "Do you want to leave?" "Yeah...let's go home."
I have only walked out of one other production of any kind in my life and that was a film back in the 70's, The Life of Brian. The Espousa's critique walking back to the car was brutal. "Talking with their backs to the audience...no projection...dead silence for unnatural lengths with actors onstage."
I did a fair amount of community theatre back in high school and I kept wondering what one of the directors that I had worked under would have said during rehearsals about the sloppiness of this production. Yikes! I thought I had blocked that all out.
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