Theater Review – December 8, 2024

PLEASANT “SCROOGE” BECOMES ATC’S ANNUAL HOLIDAY PRODUCTION

“Scrooge”
Arizona Theatre Company, Center Stage, Tempe Center for the Arts
Tempe, AZ

By Chris Curcio
Theater Critic

Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) has selected the Leslie Bricusse musical “Scrooge” as its annual holiday production.  After last season’s debut, it has been revived with the same spirited Matt August staging and with the identical physical production.  The company even brought back Broadway star Shuler Hensley from last year as the indomitable Ebenezer in the well-known tale about a character who shifts from a “bah humbugging” mean-spirited person to a rapturous person who wants to bring holiday spirit to everyone including his overworked and under-appreciated worker Bob Cratchit and his family including the impaired Tiny Tim.

It is a festive holiday tradition and the well-developed staging is sleekly professional.  But this “Scrooge” is not the best telling of the time-worn tale.  Other musical versions have better scores and you won’t leave “Scrooge” humming any of the pleasant but unremarkable tunes.  Some versions use familiar carols and the ATC production is not overtly elaborate.

The sets take audiences to the story’s various locales with effortless speed but there is nothing holiday elegant about the production’s look.  Costumes are traditional except that the ladies hoop skirts look silly riding high off the ground lacking the richly traditional look of floating on the floor.  It is said that the women’s gowns couldn’t be historically accurate because of the heavily raked stage.  It is a shame to trade the appropriate historical costume appearance for a stage that didn’t need to be so slanted.

But the cast, some from last season’s production and some new, create definitive and appropriate interpretations.  Hensley has a wonderfully rich singing voice and initially brings an evil vindictiveness to the hated Ebenezer.  He transitions superbly into the lovable character who suddenly cherishes holiday celebratory events.  Shuler’s Ebenezer is more varied and complex this season as he has refined and developed the character since last year.

Chris Will is an understanding Bob Cratchit while Beni Bermudez is a lovable and amazingly content Tiny Tim.  The performers playing Christmas’ past, present, and future are appropriately larger-than-life aided by some but not enough special effects.  Alan J. Plado’s band plays the score with exuberant relish.

The show runs a swift two hours with intermission which meets the attention span of the youngest theatergoers and “Scrooge” will serve as a merry theater introduction for children.

But like ASU Gammage during “Kimberly Akimbo,” the theater was unusually cold and drafty on “Scrooge’s opening night making the space unpleasant for audiences who sat unnecessarily shivering throughout the performance.  One hopes the theater turns on the heat.

“Scrooge” continues through December 28 at the Tempe Center for the Arts.  Tickets may be purchased by calling the Arizona Theatre Company box office at 833-ATC-SEAT or order online at www.atc.org.

Grade: A-