On scaring Scrooge

An embarrassment of riches" is an old cliché that an old, sick, world-weary schoolteacher moonlighting as a critic can cull from his word-hoard to describe the current production of Repertory Philippines at the William J. Shaw Theatre, Shangri-La Plaza Mall – A Christmas Carol (Scrooge-The Musical).

It is a bleak house that has no books in it. One expects to find on the shelves of a home library the world’s great classics. And if one is particularly partial to English novels, he would have the best of George Eliot, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, D.H. Lawrence, and Joseph Conrad, to name a few.

What schoolboy has not been enchanted by, or, at least heard of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol? Who can forget old miserable miser Ebenezer Scrooge? Who has not been touched by Tiny Tim? Or scared stiff by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet-To-Come?

And now, Rep doyennes Zeneida Amador and Baby Barredo have applied their directorial expertise to the musical version, an assurance that the book, music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse would be served most delightfully. To make doubly certain that this production is beyond reproach by the most exacting theatergoer, they have fielded from their roster of talents an ideal cast.

The youngster and the old timer and everyone else in between are familiar with the plot.

In all of London town in the mid-1800s, none is more notorious, none more disliked, than old Scrooge (Michael Williams; alternate: Oliver Usison), who on Christmas Eve is still busy at work in his office counting every penny, every sixpence, at the same time watching over his clerk, Bob Cratchit (Arnel Carrion) still hard at work on his desk. When nephew Harry (Topper Fabregas; alternate: RV Guevarra) drops in to wish him the best of the season, he can only respond disdainfully with his customary epithet: "Humbug!"

Drained of all his tender sentiments, Scrooge mistreats his clerk and distances himself from his nephew and his family. In short, he hates everyone — the butcher Bisset (Meynard Peñalosa), the fruit vendor Jerome (Timmy Sta. Maria), the wine merchant (Usison; alternate: Dino Barredo), Mrs. Dilber and her daughter (Joy Virata and Ayam Barredo), the Punch-and-Judy man (Adrian Flor), Tom Jenkins (Rem Zamora), the beggar girl (Cara Barredo), Mr Pringle, the toy shop owner and his assistant (Paulo Ocampo and Dino Barredo), and the street urchins (Cara Barredo, Mike Evaristo, Kira and Nilo Lok, Jessica Mesina, Nicola Sermonia and Richmond Tan). These folks celebrate Christmas Eve according to their means but all these do not mean a hoot to the old grumpy skinflint.

Bob Cratchit goes home to his wife Ethel (Liesl Batucan; alternate: Maritoni Rufino-Tordesillas) and five children, Kathy (Isabelle Morris), Peter (Timmy Sta. Maria), Martha (Bianca Morris), Belinda (Jessica Mesina) and Tiny Tim (Kira, alternate: Nicola). A cripple, Tiny Tim is the darling of the family. Mama Ethel bewails their miserable state and blames Papa Bob’s tightwad of an employer for their being hounded by want.

Alone and unhappy in his lodgings, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his late business partner, Jacob Marley (Miguel Faustmann) in the company of an unholy band of phantoms who warns him that before daybreak, he will meet three other sinister visitors.

The Ghost of Christmas Past (Liesl/Maritoni) brings Scrooge back to his childhood and to his young manhood. The Ghost of Christmas Present (Peñalosa) leads him to the colorful country of the dolls and the home of the Cratchits. And the last caller is the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come (Mendoza), a hideous hooded apparition, the Grim Reaper, who shows him a vision of his own funeral and the grotesque effect his demise will have on the people he has known in life which jolts him to his senses.

Ebenezer Scrooge rises from his bed on Christmas morn with a new determination to make amends. The ghosts have revealed the errors of his past, the condition of his present and the change that he can now make of his future. He has undergone a sea-change and his is a bleak house no more. And not the least of the souls who stands to benefit from the reformed Ebby is Tiny Tim, who now has great expectations that his infirmity can at last be attended to.

Say Amador and Barredo in their Director’s Notes: "If we all love our children, we would all practice the ways of peace and love and genuine good will towards all. If the world had done this since long past we would not now be fearful and anxious."

In his novels, Dickens dealt with the problems that plagued English society including those that affected children as an aftermath of the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s. The movement of people from the countryside to the big cities to work in factories, the unhealthy condition in the workplace, the employment of child labor, the rise of crime and poverty in the urban jungle — all these and more were exposed in his books, and they contributed in no small measure to the enactment of more humane laws by Parliament that uplifted the condition of the masses.

Rep’s A Christmas Carol is a splendid show that has much to recommend it — tuneful songs that lift the spirit, costumes and sets that delight the eye, crisp direction, and the superb portrayal of Scrooge by Williams. The musical numbers A Christmas Carol, It’s Not My Fault, Happiness, The Beautiful Day, I’ll Begin Again, and Thank You Very Much are all reprised and they’re simply delightful.

At a time this Yuletide season when we feel despondent that wrangling politicians, the CPP-NPA, the criminals and the cause-oriented rabble in the streets and the terrorists and their bombs have thrown this country of dog-eaters to the dogs, and there seems to be no salvation for the Filipino people, a play like A Christmas Carol lights up a Christmas candle in the dark such that we can yell into the faces of the doomsday prophets a defiant "Humbug!"

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For comments, write to jessqcruz@hotmail.com.