The Shaw Festival Theatre Review: A Christmas Carol & Brigadoon

By Ross

It seems like the most Christmas-y thing to do, after seeing Chris, Mrs. – A New Holiday Musical last week, is to go to Niagara-on-the-Lake and take in the Shaw Festival‘s two holiday season shows – A Christmas Carol and Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon. What could be more perfect? The town feels as joyously festive as you can imagine, filled to overflowing with twinkling lights and holiday wreaths a-plenty everywhere you look. We even saw Santa Claus ride by at the tail end of their Christmas parade on Saturday afternoon as we made our way to the matinee at the main Festival Stage. It was a glorious two days, drinking Bailey’s Lattes in the musical’s interval, and seeing a good friend from my college days in the York University theatre department. It couldn’t be any more seasonal than that. I even managed to watch my favorite film, “Fiddler on the Roof” once I got home from the matinee. And what a glorious ending that was.

As if made to order, the first up was the classic Charles Dickens tale, A Christmas Carol, based on a novella first published in London in 1843, but here at the Shaw Festival, we are given a pantomime posturing, adapted (and originally directed) by Tim Carroll. A Christmas Carol dutifully and singingly recounts the story of the elderly miser, Ebenezer Scrooge, who after showing us his bah-humbugged nature on Christmas Eve, is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, followed by three spirits determined to melt his cold dark heart; Christmas Past, Present, and the one Yet to Come, so that he may see the value of human kindness and generosity. And after their eye-opening visits, Scrooge is transformed, miraculously, into a man filled to the Christmas brim with kindness and love. It’s the warmest of tales, and when told right, does the holiday trick with ease.

It seems this production is a solid staple of Christmas in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and I’ve always loved and embraced all the different tellings of it, from the legendary 1951 “Scrooge” starring Alastair Sim (the B&W version only, please, if I may say so. Not the colorized version), through the most wonderful 1992 “The Muppet Christmas Carol“ all the way to the 2019 FX magnificent and dark gothic adaptation series of “A Christmas Carol” starring Guy Pierce. All are excellent in their own way, shape, and form. So I was looking forward to seeing what the Shaw Festival had in store for us, but I must admit I was hoping for a darker and more adult-focused adaptation of A Christmas Carol than what the festival had in mind. Which, I will add, is completely reasonable, and had I given it more preshow thought, I should have known that the focus would be on a more family-friendly approach than the more gothic versions I saw on Broadway last year and the years before that; the Old Vic version and the one-Mays extravaganza, both excellent in their own manner.

Directed this time at Shaw by Brendan McMurtry-Howlett (Theatre Center’s After the Fire), their Christmas Carol rings itself into our hearts before the lights even dim. It’s all sweetness and carols, playing with the comic bits on equal footing to the more poignant ones. Scary it is not, which from the looks of all the children around me and how engrossed they all were, this production, as presented with puppets and pantomime, finds just the right tone and energy to carry us through gently and charmingly. I did miss the tension, especially in the first classic scene inside, what should have been the cold and heartless office of Ebenezer Scrooge, played with great heart and determination by Sanjay Talwar (Shaw’s Prince Caspian), where a cold Bob Cratchit, portrayed clearly by Andrew Lawrie (Shaw’s The Playboy of the Western World), sits working diligently, scared of his employer and therefore, freezing in the darkness at his desk. But here, inside the Shaw‘s Christmas Carol, the scene is played against a very bright and charming painting of the town we are all in, Niagara-on-the-Lake, with a crisp sweet blanket of snow covering the wreath-lined streets, with the distinctive clock tower in the center, just like it is right outside the door of the Royal George Theatre. Pretty and charming.

it’s a gentle loving visual, one that worked extremely well with the carolers who usher us into the theatrical world of Dicken’s gothic novella tale, with advent calendar windows and doors ready to be utilized in the playful way this production has intended, at least in this first scene. After the carols are sung with bells a-chiming, a woman and a door become Scrooge’s desk that he bends over with determination and greed, and an advent opening becomes a door, held true by Lawrie’s Cratchit, a door that flings itself down into his lap to become his small work desk. It’s a very cute playful endeavor, extended to the two actors who become Scrooge’s armchair at home where he eats his stew all alone in the dark after it is served up by Mrs. Dilber, portrayed by Patty Jamieson (Shaw’s Mother, Daughter). But then, that playful humans-as-furniture falls away, never to return again.

It was a structuring that I wasn’t pining for its return, to be honest, as the setting, as designed by Christine Lohre (Shaw’s Charley’s Aunt) who also is credited with the fine costumes, could have just used some real solid pieces of furniture for those two scenes, and maybe utilized the magnificent darker background for the office, a vista that was used hereafter to great results, as this darker backgrounds would have served the story far better than the light silliness that those advent ideas presented. It would have given the play a more aligned mood and atmosphere, but maybe not in the flinging-of-snow kind of cute way this production had in mind.

Once again, I think I was in want of a darker journey in general, but after those initial moments, the visuals improved, even when made jolly by the movement and puppetry of Alexis Milligan (Shaw’s The Horse and His Boy), drawing forth the headless ghost of Mr. Marley and those other ghosts from the present and the future. However, in that other moment with the Ghost of Christmas Present, embodied with comic chops by Shawn Wright (Mirvish’s Harry Potter…), the scene shifts from the strong use of those small flying puppets to the actual flesh and blood Scrooge peering in on a festive feast and game played out against him. I wasn’t convinced that his physical full-sized presence was needed for that one scene to find its connective tissue, as the flying small puppet that he had become for this adventure was working its magic on us throughout this present-day visitation. And the shift, as with many ideas used, and then dropped, felt like unneeded whiplash of the creative order.

The headless antics between Scrooge and Marley also felt a bit off, in my book, but the floating hat is a fun visual that delighted the kids around me, as is the swinging child-like way that the first visitation, that of the Ghost of Christmas Past, played most pleasantly by assistant director Élodie Gillett (Shaw’s On the Razzle), unpacks the history lesson with the use of shadow puppetry on the bed curtains of Mr. Scrooge. It’s the perfect antidote for strong storytelling and edgy visuals, an element that elevates the production to a higher power.

Comedy seems to be the go-to vibe in the Shaw production, with extraneous bits of humor played out by a flaming present-day ghost on roller skates and a young kid with a kite. It’s amusing, especially for the kids, but somehow the telling of this tale never completely captivated my heart or my soul. But with the ghost of Christmas Future, looming over the fearful Scrooge, I finally caught on to the wonder of this production. It’s fearsome, while also visually interesting in the flowing way the whiteness is draped over a skull’s head and hands, emphasized well by the lighting design of Kevin Lamotte (Shaw’s The Clearing).

But what follows that well-crafted graveyard scene made me question the framework once again. The cast all comes out of the shadows to sing an unnecessary and oddly placed ditty, “Put a Little Love In Your Heart” as Scrooge sleeps the rest of Christmas Eve away. I did sort of lean back in my seat, wondering where that fits in with Dickens and his world. I also didn’t see the use of that wandering cat, to be frank. Does that make me a Grinch or a Scrooge? I don’t think so, but maybe a very super family-friendly A Christmas Carol was not on my Santa wish list that night. I can’t say, but I will say, if you are in Niagara-on-the-Lake for an evening (or weekend afternoon) with a few children in tow, this is the holiday show for you and your lot. It gives you that Christmas Carol cathartic joy in the end, and that’s really what this show is all about, whether it starts out in darkness or in the light of a picture-perfect advent calendar with doors that become desks, and where snow is flung in the air every time one comes or goes.

Over on the main stage of the Shaw Festival, there is a different kind of show that is definitely more my cup of tea, or should I say, more my big cup of Scotch Whiskey. For this same holiday season, the festival has brought forth, once again, Lerner and Loewe’s 1947 classic, Brigadoon, and has found the formula to deliver it forth in spectacularly good form. It’s a superb, gorgeous production, revived from 2019, that is most definitely worthy of a road trip from Toronto just to wallow in its wonderfulness. The musical, with an original book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner (and a revised book by Brian Hill) and music by Frederick Loewe, is as Scottish as you can get from those first strongly crafted notes played most dynamically by the Shaw Festival orchestra, with musical direction by Paul Sportelli (Shaw’s Gypsy) and a strong sound design by John Lott (Shaw’s Sweeney Todd), to the lovely romantic ending brought forth out of the fog by the powerful and perfectly sung “There But For You Go I“.

This show truly is a big warm slice of the golden age of Broadway, living in the foggy highlands of Scotland just waiting to be found once again inside its infectious loving songs and characters. It’s whimsical and wonderful in its undercurrent, and even though I couldn’t help myself but ponder the hilariously lost parallels to Apple+’s “Schmigadoon!“, I also found myself lost in a lovely dream, just like those two men in the glory and beauty of Brigadoon. And glad the cast didn’t abide by or stick to those traditional Scottish kilt-dressing rules. That would have been a different kind of show with all those high Highland kicks and dance moves.

It all starts as it did for those two characters in “Schmigadoon!“, lost in the Scottish woods, talking about true love and marriage. But this time around it’s 1946, and the lost souls who are about to be found are two American GI men, fresh (and still haunted) by the war. The love they are discussing lives, or maybe doesn’t, inside the unhappy Tommy, beautifully embodied by the vocally-gifted Stewart Adam McKensy (Stratford’s Hairspray), in Scotland on a bachelor weekend with his best buddy, Jeff, played to hilarious perfection by Kevin McLachlan (Shaw’s Gypsy). They are out and about hunting in the highlands, lost and looking for a way out, when, out of the fog, they find themselves an unmapped town called Brigadoon, filled with inhabitants not of the GI’s time and frame of mind.

The town, as created by set designer Pam Johnson (Vancouver Playhouse’s Equus), literally emerges from the fog most dynamically and beautifully, assisted strongly by the projections designed by Corwin Ferguson (Stratford’s Rent). It’s gorgeously crafted, filling our hearts with quaint ideas of when life was (mystically) easier and happier. The two men can’t help but notice the happiness, and the lack of phones and any knowledge of the outside ‘modern’ world. For one of them, Tommy, this is an escapist gift and secret wish fulfillment. But for Jeff, it’s just a funny distraction and possibly a mirage or dream state, of some sort, one that they are sure to wake from any minute.

The town folk, straight out of a Scottish clan catalogue, seem to be stuck in the year 1746, happily engaged and excited for the wedding day of two of their townsfolk. But not everyone is jumping high, singing a merry show-stopping tune entitled, “I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean” – a magnificent presentation, thanks to the dynamic choreography of Linda Garneau (Citadel’s The Curious Incident…). There is one Scottish son, the brooding Harry Beaton, played true by Travis Seetoo (Shaw’s Everybody), who, like Tommy, wishes for an escape. Not from the same place, nor because he questions his love like Tommy does, but because he is heartbroken and overwhelmed with love for the lovely Jean MacLaren, tenderly portrayed by Madelyn Kriese (Gateway’s Fiddler on the Roof). Unfortunately for Harry, she is about to be married to another; the one kicking up his heels with joy and excitement, the effervescent Charlie Dalrymple, powerfully embodied by a dynamic David Andrew Reid (Shaw’s Damn Yankees). A pill that is too hard and bitter for poor Harry to swallow, day after day.

But all that is secondary, in a way, to the main magical reason these two American men find themselves conflicted and in opposition to one another about what they want to do, what they should do, and where they want to be. The quickly love-struck Tommy finds himself questioning everything, especially the feelings he should have for his fiance back in New York, and the woman, the stunning Fiona MacLaren, portrayed by the gloriously gifted Alexis Gordon (Stratford’s Carousel), whom he just met gathering “The Heather on the Hill” for the wedding of her sister. Within moments, and a few beautifully rendered songs, such as Gordon’s “Waitin’ For My Dearie” and the spectacular duet, “Almost Like Being in Love“, the two fall madly and deeply in love, and Tommy can’t figure out what he wants to do; whether he should return to New York to marry someone he thinks he doesn’t really love, or should he forever remain in Brigadoon with his newfound love, but with an unknown ending to their story.

The glorious score couldn’t be more sweeping and gorgeously performed and sung by a cast that is absolute perfection. Their expert vocals and their intricate and spirited dance moves are displayed throughout; at every sword dance and wedding day packin’ up. The musical couldn’t be more appealing if it tried, and as directed with an expert hand for romantic melodrama and emotional revelations by Glynis Leyshon (Shaw’s The Children’s Hour), Brigadoon finds its way beautifully through the fog, embracing the romanticism that is at its core, while never sidestepping the humor and the joy that is inherent to the tale.

One of the best highlights, beyond McLachlan’s magnificent best friend embodiment of a Danny Kaye attitude and perspective, is Kristi Frank (Grand Theatre’s Shrek) as the fireball Meg, delivering two of the best and smart funny songs of the show; the deliciously delightful “The Love of My Life” and the impossibly fun “My Mother’s Weddin’ Day.” She reminded me of the ‘Can’t Say No‘ Oklahoma! gal, Ado Annie, but all dressed in Scottish red yet similarly ready, for a romp at a moment’s notice. Frank shines so so bright in this fantastical part, throwing herself fully into its delivery with a wild dynamic energy that is infectious. In the same energetic expressive vein, it would also be criminal to not give a shout-out to the mournful dance that is beautifully done by an endearing Genny Sermonia (Shaw’s Sweet Charity) as the heartbroken young lassy by the name of Maggie. I’m usually not taken in by those moments in classic musicals when dance takes over in that way, but with Sermonia channelling some aspect and feel of the original Agnes DeMille dance framing, the emotional energy is well spent and much appreciated.

The top-heavy but magnificent Brigadoon, with an Act One that feels twice as big and fantastically as the slim Second Act, unfolds like a romantic storybook, beautifully brought to life thanks to the spectacular work by set designer Johnson, lighting designer Kevin Lamotte (Shaw’s Holiday Inn), and the beautiful costuming by Sue LePage (Blyth Festival’s Liars at a Funeral). It’s exactly the Scotch Mist I was hoping for during this two day visit to Niagara-on-the-Lake, and with this dynamic fun show, as beautifully rendered as one could hope for, a Christmas wish was granted. So, for this show (unlike the other), leave those kids at home with the babysitter, and get yourself into town where goodness reigns and true love can take many forms, well, at least in Brigadoon, and in “Schmigadoon!” for that matter. Because this show is as good as it gets this holiday season.

BRIGADOON and A CHRISTMAS CAROL play at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario through December 23, 2023. For information and tickets, click here.