Ebenezer Scrooge: A Christmas Carol - A Serious review….

Awwww… the wonder of it all! It’s Saturday. And here I am, sitting in a packed, gas guzzling SUV (my sister and I were carpooling with some friends) stuck in a minor traffic jam, slowly heading toward the great force of evil on earth - Boston. As always, I am going with my sister to a great cultural event. In this case, as last time, it is a play. This time however, instead of the sentimental hogwash “Oklahoma!”, I am going to see the more traditional stage - play, Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol,” which was to be performed by New Life Fine Arts Musical Theater. Baa Humbug!

We arrive about thirty minutes before the play is to begin. And after a few minutes of wrestling and biting our way to the ticket counter and getting our tickets, I feel quite confident that we are ready to watch the play. I mean, is not this what Christmas is all about? Running and trampling over people to get what YOU Want?

Now for the confession: For some strange, odd, bizarre, and outlandish reason which makes zip sense, the Patriots are playing today (Saturday). To explain why it’s weird for them to play on Saturday – on the same exact day as the performance, at the same exact time as the game, is hardly impossible! They play sixteen games a year and only one of them on a Saturday! WHY THIS SATURDAY!!??(?) It is enough to boggle the coconut.

Well… I must say that I did not go unprepared. In my front coat pouch, I was secretly smuggling a set of headphones and a little palm size radio… The price if caught with such articles in this theater was quite lenient: Death. Nevertheless, what is life without the thrill of a life and death risk? You know, sort of like climbing Mount Everest (or any other mountain with a 50/50 chance of survival…). There was always that risk of being caught. Nevertheless, I figured that if for some strange reason I was caught, I supposed that it would make a great story to write on my blog… Baa Humbug.

The sound system is t-e-rr-i-b-le… (Ok.... that my be a little too harsh...) One of the lead actors, Mr. Cratchit’s microphone is not working. Moreover, the music from the (bottomless) music pit is sometimes overwhelming the otherwise great singing and whatnot. Baa Humbug! The actors with a few exceptions fill their roles wonderfully. Scrooge looks like Scrooge. Cratchit looks like Cratchit, etc. But, those sound people! Are there no prisons or workhouses for them?... Baa HumBug!...