At Candlelight, ‘Scrooge! The Musical’ features Wayne Kennedy as the old skinflint

If you’re going to hit some version of the Scrooge tale, why not add music and dinner to the experience?

You can do so this season up at the Candlelight in Johnstown. Known for its well-produced, big stage musicals, this one features Chas Lederer in his directorial debut. I was just crowing about his performance as Dr. Watson at Miners Alley in October, and here he is helming this one with a keen eye for the emotional rhythms of the story and a vibrant cast to bring it home.

This 1992 stage version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by Leslie Bricusse was adapted from a 1970 musical film starring Albert Finney as the despicable miser. Here, dinner-theatre mainstay Wayne Kennedy — late of BDT Stage — puts on a clinic in Scroogology, wringing every miserable, reprehensible character flaw out of the wicked old wretch before the ghostly trio opens his eyes to the value of not being the world’s biggest jerk.

Scott Severtson as the ghost of Marley | Photo: The Creative Agency

Super Scrooge

The musical number lineup features a mix of familiar songs like “Thank You Very Much” and “the Milk of Human Kindness” and lesser-known ones that still resonate. I loved Scrooge’s “M.O.N.E.Y” — as blatant a celebration of wealth as you’re likely to hear outside Mar-a-Lago. In our new gilded age, it’s not even that shocking to hear a 1-percenter like Scrooge extoll cash while also belting out “I Hate People” and “It’s Not My Fault” as a way of justifying his misanthropic solitude.

Bricusse takes the original Dickens and turns it up a few notches to make one of literatures most unsavory characters even more odious. Meanwhile, characters like Bob Cratchit (Carter Edward Smith) and his nephew (Patric Case) continue to treat him as a more or less normal person despite his every effort to turn them away. No matter how many versions of A Christmas Carol we see, that resistance to just writing off the deplorable skinflint is as critical to his eventual salvation as the arrival of the ghosts.

Fezziwig’s party | Photo: The Creative Agency

The ghosts

The decision by Dickens to use ghosts as the change catalyst has always stood as an inspired choice. He could’ve used angels, or a love interest or even an old sage to help Scrooge see the error of his ways. Introducing a scary element to a Christmas story is one of the reasons why the story has resonated since its initial publication in 1843. It adds another level of interest and, of course, lots of opportunity for stage versions to have some fun.

The arrival of Marley’s ghost is the first opportunity to deliver a shock. Marley is played with plenty of gusto by Scott Severtson, and he’s decked out nicely in chains and tattered clothes along with what looked like a large bandage on his head — presumably to keep his jaw from falling down.

In a curious bit of staging, Scrooge’s bedchamber is positioned upstage and fairly high up in a rather confined space. It made for some tight maneuvering by Scrooge and Marley during their scenes, and from where I was sitting it was a bit of challenge to see. The rest of the set by Ranae Selmeyer is perfectly functional with minimal detail.

Next up is Paige Bryant, clad in all white, as the Ghost of Christmas Past. She’s full of helpful reminders about what a normal fellow Scrooge was before money poisoned his brain. This section of course includes the bombastic Fezziwig party scene and the big musical number “December the Twenty-Fifth.”

Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig (Ryne Haldeman and Vicki White) are tremendous as the boisterous couple, and White’s voice in particular shines here as well in the roles of Mrs. Dilber. Choreographer Matthew Dailey shows his chops with this one, a high-energy, high-traffic piece that comes across nicely.

Anna Piper as the Ghost of Christmas Present does a nice turn as a brassy, bossy ghost endowed with a thick Scottish accent. Rather than a grim-reaper style future ghost, here the character communicated via thunder and lightning — a nice touch that’s quite effective at getting the point across while terrorizing old Scrooge.

As with just about any Candlelight show, the production overall is lavish and well done. Dailey’s choreography throughout is solid, and Music Director Zerek Dodson leads the full pit orchestra through all the numbers with impressive professionalism. Deb Faber’s costume design take standard Victorian garb and soups it up with a lot of color.

All told, Candlelight delivers a yuletide show that should be enjoyable for all audiences.

The younger members of the cast | Photo: The Creative Agency

One last thing …

One disappointment, however, came with the dinner itself. In the past, I’ve noted that the meals at Candlelight are pretty good for what’s essentially banquet fare. But since I last visited a few years ago, the quality seems to have slipped (others have mentioned this to me as well). The fish & chips dinner we were served was not at all good. The fish was overdone and leathery and the fries were oddly flattened, hard and dry. The mozzarella sticks for appetizer were similarly unappealing (tough, cold), as were the rolls and salad. If there’s any area for improvement here, it’s clearly in the kitchen.

The service itself, I’d add, was stellar, with the usual mix of cast and band members supplementing the regular waitstaff.