{"id":7609,"date":"2018-12-10T06:44:06","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T11:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7609"},"modified":"2018-12-31T10:08:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:08:32","slug":"a-christmas-carol-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7609","title":{"rendered":"A Christmas Carol"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Greg Wood as Ebenezer Scrooge; photo: T. Charles Erickson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is the third season for McCarter Theatre Center\u2019s most recent and most joyous version of A Christmas Carol, its delightful return to Christmas in the Age of Dickens<\/a>. Opening night was December 7, and this sparkler of a show, based on playwright David Thompson\u2019s adaptation and directed by Adam Immerwahr, runs through December 29. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immerwahr\u2019s intent when he took on this holiday staple was to explore how Scrooge\u2019s redemption \u201cisn\u2019t just the redemption of one man . . . when a person changes, it can transform an entire community.\u201d His version is filled with songs from what Immerwahr calls \u201cthe treasure trove of terrific Christmas music of Dickens\u2019s era.\u201d Even some carols not used explicitly have \u201cbecome part of the underscoring of the play,\u201d whose music was composed by the late Obie-award winning composer Michael Friedman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show exemplifies McCarter\u2019s goal of celebrating creativity, community, and diversity in the presence onstage\u2014and before the curtain, in the lobby and theater aisles\u2014of a cheerful community ensemble of 26 adults and a dozen children. The entire audience is involved in singing the opening carol, and probably no one in the audience avoided beaming and foot-tapping during the Fezziwigs\u2019 Christmas party, with its exuberant, full-cast dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ebenezer Scrooge (played by Greg Wood) has never said \u201cBah! Humbug!\u201d with more feeling, Bob Cratchit (Jon Norman Schneider) has never been more patiently put-upon, and the rest of the cast, mostly playing multiple parts, is as lively as ever, bringing Dickens\u2019s memorable characters wonderfully to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The familiar tale of a miser\u2019s comeuppance is all there. The Ghost of Christmas Past reminds him how he gave up his youthful opportunities for happiness in order to pursue wealth; the Ghost of Christmas Present shows him how others, especially the Cratchits, live; and the Ghost of Christmas Future presents a frightening scenario that causes him to vow to change. Old Marley\u2019s ghost (Frank X) is particularly effective and delivers my favorite line, the sententious \u201cI wear the chain I forged in life.I made it link by link and yard by yard.\u201d The early dark scenes change to light as Scrooge wakes Christmas morning a reformed man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underscoring the production\u2019s goal of community engagement is the scheduling of a sensory-sensitive, relaxed matinee performance on December 28, to enable a wider range of people to enjoy a live performance. For tickets, call the box office at 609-258-2787 or visit the box office online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the third season for McCarter Theatre Center\u2019s most recent and most joyous version of A Christmas Carol, its delightful return to Christmas in the Age of Dickens. Opening night was December 7, and this sparkler of a show, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A Christmas Carol - Central New Jersey's favorite family outing!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61,272,366,104,147],"tags":[746,747,13,748,749],"class_list":["post-7609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-character","category-comedy","category-drama","category-the-morgue","category-theater","tag-a-christmas-carol","tag-adam-immerwahr","tag-charles-dickens","tag-greg-wood","tag-mccarter-theatre-center"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1YJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7609"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7614,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7609\/revisions\/7614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}