“God Bless Them, Every Single One”
The Lexington Theatre Company’s production of A Christmas Carol, the Musical
As observed by Kevin Lane Dearinger
Opening Night approaches.
Having watched daily rehearsals and the leaps-and-bounds progress of the production’s development, this observer has a few thoughts to share about A Christmas Carol, the Musical. As usual when he watches The Lex at work, his eyes fill with gentle tears of pride and a bright glint of glee. I know. I know. All very Victorian. All very Dickensian.
Charles Dickens loved the theatre. He loved music hall and actors. He liked lump-in-the-throat sentiment. He would have loved American Musical Theatre. And he would have loved The Lexington Theatre Company’s production of A Christmas Carol.
It that the ringing of Big Ben? Are those carolers out on the cobblestones? Where can that heavenly harp be playing? Can you just about smell the Christmas turkey and plum pudding? Is there snow in the sky? Well, just maybe. We seem to be in the heart of Old London.
The show is true to Dickens, sharing his holiday spirit, but full of the tickling creativity that theatre folk honor all the year round. It’s a story of ghosts and goblins, greed and irascibility, then joy recovered and celebrated. It’s full of holiday spirits.
It’s a story that has been told before, of course, but every telling needs to be freshly felt. Leads, ensemble, street urchins. It’s how The Lex approaches musicals, with director-choreographer Patrick O’Neill and musical director Dr. Brock Terry at the helm, finding the heart, seeking the spark, planning the precision, and celebrating the art of the musical. During a performance, you won’t be able to witness Patrick’s great grins of rehearsal discovery or Brock’s supportive nods (except perhaps the back of his head in the orchestra pit), but their loving care will fill the Opera House.
Watch this company of actors.
The casting, as they say on Masterpiece Theatre, is “spot on.”
Denis Lambert and the Company of A Christmas Carol. Photography by Steve Shaffer
Denis Lambert is a squinting, scowling, snarling, and deliciously droll Ebenezer Scrooge. Yet don’t overlook his heart-breaking vulnerability as the old miser grapples with memory, conscience, and his own humanity. Denis acts and sings beautifully but observe how he carefully he listens and watches. And moves. And leads the company.
Brance Cornelius creates a seething, roaring Jacob Marley. With clarion high notes and some pretty heavy jewelry. Boris Karloff in his tenor years. He rises from a mystical mist like the swamp thing but moves with an after-life grace. Swan Lake with chains and lurching zombie cygnets. With an occasional Fosse shoulder roll.
Holiday spirits indeed.
Brance Cornelius and the Company of A Christmas Carol. Photography by Steve Shaffer
Michael Di Liberto as The Ghost of Christmas Past is a Christmas gift, gleefully unwrapped, skipping fleet-footed and flashing a wonderful silliness, a skilled character actor with the unstoppable vivacity of a frisky juvenile. Byron St. Cyr as The Ghost of Christmas Present is a Music Hall impresario with a glorious back-up of tap-dancing sprites, giddy with good will. The fullness of life gleams in Byron’s jubilant eyes, clouding only with thoughts of what Scrooge has lost. Invaluable as always, Margo Buchanan pops up throughout the show, but her Ghost of Christmas Yet to Be showcases her talent for owning a stage with eloquent stillness and economy of gesture.
Byron St. Cyr, Margo Buchanan, Michael Di Liberto and the Company of A Christmas Carol. Photography by Steve Shaffer
Catherine Gaffney spins out a London square full of characters— housekeeper hag, befuddled granny, genial drunk—each one perfectly crafted, perfectly grounded, by an actress who has played about a hundred-and-fifty roles in three shows locally in the past six months.
Having Karyn Czar and Michael Friedman as the irrepressible Fezziwigs makes their “Annual Christmas Ball” a party not to miss. Their infectious joy stirs memories of all our long-ago holidays, shared with those we love. They lead a spirted polka, raising the roof as well as the spirits with Patrick O’Neill’s showstopping choreography performed by an ensemble committed to holiday fun. It’s noisy, too, with what Patrick calls “vocal architecture.”
Jacob Higdon and Haley O’Donnell as young Scrooge and his lost love Emily are sublime of voice, tender of heart, and nimble of foot. Their duet “A Place Called Home” shimmers with feeling, and when older, not-yet-wiser Scrooge joins in, well, just you wait.
Jacob Higdon, Haley O’Donnell, Denis Lambert, and the Company of A Christmas Carol. Photography by Steve Shaffer
There comes a time when looking at the Past becomes the Past staring back at the Present. Accusing. Chilling because we have all been there.
Swathed in his woolen scarf, Matt Gibson is a lanky, gentle Bob Cratchit, his love for his family shining out like Shakespeare’s “good deed in a naughty world.” It’s a lovely family, too. Kelli Jo Summers is a plain-speaking Mrs. Cratchit, Addie Baker as Martha, Ben Smith as Peter, and Margot Nunnelley as Belinda.
Addie Baker, Kelli Jo Summers, Luke Krohmer, Margot Nunnelley, Matt Gibson, and Ben Smith. Photography by Steve Shaffer
Released from Randy’s snowsuit of last year’s production of A Christmas Story, Luke Krohmer as Tiny Tim embodies the childhood goodness that Dickens reminded us so often was a sacred gift. Pure in tone and pure in heart, Luke is an actor with a deep soul.
It’s tempting to go on about each and every performer. Easy enough to do. But watch them all! Watch the crowd of characters they create. Note the generous patterns of movement within the crisp focus of the narrative. Upper, middle, lower, and servant classes, reminding us that we are in nineteenth-century England. Fine points in the turn and sweep of the hands. The carefully placed foot, the well-timed twist of the head, the clink of a coin, the unnamed character seen for only a moment who has stepped right out of John Leech’s iconic 1843 illustrations.
Denis Lambert, Byron St. Cyr and the Company of A Christmas Carol. Photography by Steve Shaffer
Stop, too, and admire Elizabeth Payne’s wealth of costumes—capes and hoops, velvets and brocades, rags and riches—all designed specifically for this production. Prepare to ooh-and-ahhh when J Branson’s Advent-calendar sets emerge in their full beauty under the always virtuosic lighting and special effects created by Tanya Harper. It’s a show that is nearly delirious with stage props, each crafted with pride and attention to detail by Esther Neel and her crew. Listen closely as your heart sings. That’s The Lexington Theatre Company Orchestra, our brilliant Dr. Brock Terry and twenty-five beloved musicians, some playing multiple instruments, and all of them touching the sublime. The Lex gathers so much artistry in one place.
Michael Di Liberto and Denis Lambert. Photography by Steve Shaffer
But always, it’s the families.
This production overflows with families, gathering and regathering, finding comfort in each other. Nephew Fred and his wife Sally (Dan Klimko and Caroline Lynch Desmarais) and their happy brood. The husband and wife bickering over chestnuts. The older couple clinging to old love. The mother calling her son to supper. The grieving father comforting his orphaned daughter. Scrooge’s lost parents and sister. The street eccentrics that Dickens so loved, each struggling but looking after each other. Families.
The Lex is a family.
“There’s a place called home,” we hear them sing. “It’s the place in my heart where I still come home to you.”
My sentimental eyes see you all, and I am grateful to be “home” with you.
So come celebrate. The holiday season is upon us.
Dickens and The Lexington Theatre Company have a story to tell.
The Lexington Theatre Company’s production of A Christmas Carol, the Musical, plays the Lexington Opera House for six glorious performances, November 20-23. Curtain time on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening at 7:30, Sunday at 6:30, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 1:00.
Kevin Lane Dearinger is a retired actor, singer, and teacher. His published works include four theatre histories, six volumes of poetry, several plays, and two memoirs, Bad Sex in Kentucky and On Stage with Bette Davis: Inside the Fabulous Flop of Miss Moffat. His theatrical career took him to Broadway, on tour across the United States, Canada, and Japan, and to many of the best regional theatres in the country. When he was very young, he sang in a Broadway tribute to director Joshua Logan at the Imperial Theatre; his last professional performance was in a Broadway tribute to Stephen Sondheim at the New Amsterdam. He is proud of his Actors Equity Pension and counts among his blessings the privilege of sitting in on rehearsals with The Lexington Theatre Company. He is currently writing a history of the Lexington Opera House.
