“IT’S WHAT THEY DO!”
The Lexington Theatre Company Rehearses A Christmas Carol, the Musical.
As observed by Kevin Lane Dearinger
Well, come on now!
It’s not as if The Lexington Theatre Company closed its wonderful production of Joseph in August, packed his Technicolor Dream Coat off to the dry cleaners, and grabbed a chartered flight to a time-share in Boca.
The Lex is a very steady presence in Central Kentucky, a year-round force in the performing arts. With its educational programs, community outreach, special events, and long-range planning (crucial), the company’s home on Alexandria Drive keeps busy.
But the heart of The Lex always beats in a Broadway rhythm. It’s all about musical theatre. In production. On a stage. With an audience.
It’s all about excellence in performance! It’s what they do.
So it begins again.
This year’s holiday show is A Christmas Carol, the Musical. It’s classic Dickens but dressed in Broadway’s festive best. Music, lyrics, and book by Alan Menken, Lynn Ahrens, and Mike Ockrent, Broadway creative royalty, and presented by The Lex with all the holiday trimmings.
Rehearsals start. On time, of course.
Scrooge (Denis Lambert) is in the building, but not a hint of Scrooginess clouds the air. (Or is that a London fog?) The stage musical is built on what A Christmas Carol has always been—a plea for good will and generosity. It is a call for empathy and joy. It is about helping others and recognizing what is beautiful in every day and season.
Perfect for The Lex.
Preparations have been as meticulous as online holiday shopping—in mid-June. Auditions, budgeting, casting, contracts, housing. Designers have been designing, as they do.
Every effort is lifted by the energy of creation. By knowing and sharing a goal.
Feeling the excitement, stage manager Nancy Uffner calls her holiday family together.
The director-choreographer is Patrick O’Neill, who gave so much soul to Chicago and Jersey Boys for The Lex. On this visit, he seems to say “y’all” like a native, but like every pro involved in the production, he arrives for the first day of rehearsal after months of preparation, trial and consideration. Patrick is as organized as he is personable and encouraging. He speaks to his cast about the history and resonance of Dickens’ story. Again, sharing a goal.
The staff have prepared orientation materials, scripts, vocal scores, and t-shirts (“Musicals Make Life Better”) for each company member, all labeled like gifts under a tinseled tree, unwrapped with wonder and expectation. First days have much in common with Christmas morning.
Beloved faces return from other shows, bringing strong talent that grows stronger in the company of other talent. Not unreasonably, they are dressed somewhat more warmly than they were last July. The rehearsal space is glad to see them again. Rehearsal spaces hold memories. It’s A Christmas Carol, and friendly ghosts hover about.
There are also friendly new faces, a bit nervous but eager to share their own talents. Each one welcomed with confidence and admiration. Auditions were demanding, but they got the job! It’s what they do.
Dr. Brock Terry is back as music director, supported by Michael Rintamaa and Shoshana Seid-Green. Grins flash across the keyboards. As they often do. Brock stops to share a handy vocal tip to his assembled baritones and tenors. It’s what he does. He is a gift in any season.
Producers Jeromy Smith and Lyndy Franklin Smith are everywhere, assisting, solving, supporting, and as excited as every other artist in the building. The adrenalin is racing. As always, they set the pace and model the mood. It’s what they do so very well.
Someone says it’s “like the first day of school.” Someone always does.
Well, maybe. If the first day of school were an intensive all-day class combining math, English, music, and gym, culminating in a heavy load of first-night homework. With sore feet. And all of it wonderful.
A tall, jolly-faced actor swoops by on his way to a fitting. If he is not Bob Cratchit, then there is no justice in the casting universe. But he is Bob Cratchit (Matt Gibson).
By mid-afternoon, Patrick is staging Marley’s ghostly invasion of Scrooge’s penny-pinching solitude. Famously “dead to begin with,” Marley (Brance Cornelius) arrives with an army of backup ghouls, all stepping creepily out of their graves and, in this case, the woodwork. Patrick is endlessly inventive. The man may well be able to choreograph anything—Baby Chicks. Fried Halibut. Pez Dispensers. Pasta. Anything! Today he choreographs chains, long, heavy chains, shaking and rattling every metallic link with a gruesome musical brio. The spirits are lively. In every sense.
Patrick shifts into full Broadway mode when the Ghost of Christmas Present (Byron St. Cyr) and his backup dancers arrive. Wearing their tap-shoes. Nothing offers greater expectations (!) than triple-threat performers at The Lex tactfully walking on the sides of their talented feet to silence their taps and then unleashing what is always a spine-tingling sound. “Fuh-lap-ball-change. Fuh-lap-ball-change. Fuh-lap-ball-change.” Oh, it is most certainly what they do! There’s even a stop-time moment that would thrill Fred Astaire.
Will Scrooge dance? Could there be a kick-line? Might the tap shoes drown out the chains? What will happen when the always-marvelous apprentices joins the cast? Did Patrick just say, “Show me your pivots”? Rehearsals have their own language and their own magic.
With so much to come.
Then, when the ghosts dissolve—on a required rehearsal break—and the tap shoes rest quietly, Scrooge meets his younger self (Jacob Higdon) and his youthful love (Haley O’Donnell). It’s a musical, remember? Musicals need a romantic ballad, even if it becomes a haunted trio. Brock proposes a few interpolated high notes to show off the tenor. Tenors are obliging. This one shines. Three fine voices then find comfort in tender harmonies. After the chain-rattling and tap-fuh-laps, it is now the heart that is rattled and beating with an insistent longing. Hearts will do that.
Charles Dickens. It’s what he does.
I’m so excited! It’s what I do.
It’s what The Lex does.
Every time.
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 attempting to write a history of the Lexington Opera House. He is excited.
