What a dame!

Theatre
Scrooge – A Christmas Panto
MFCC

It’s that time of year again when people go in droves to the theatre to uphold a much loved Christmas tradition – panto. Though I can never bring myself to equate that monstrosity at MFCC with a real theatre, I must admit that this year, the place seemed a little more cosy perhaps because of the fact that the story chosen was based on the Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. Re-titled Scrooge after the 1970 musical film version, and ending with the same show-stopping Academy Award-winner finale song Thank You Very Much, the MADC version was a different take on panto this year mainly because it was so un-panto-like for the first half-hour of the show.

Indeed the first half was pretty mild compared to the usual fare offered and largely followed the traditional plot-line of the story, with a few tweaks here and there and some minor humorous local commentary. What made it still pleasant was the traditional factor and the highly engaging characterisation which the actors managed to put across in their roles, aided to no end by Peter Howitt’s magical and inventive set designs which gave it a truly Christmassy feel.

Colin Willis’s Scrooge was excellent and so convincing, both in looks and in demeanour that most people were really caught up in the plot right away, especially in the way he treated poor Mr Applegate played by Marco Calleja. Alan Montanaro’s script exposed the traditional panto elements like the booing and hissing, the “He’s behind you!” routine and so forth right after the introductory show tune, almost as though to get the preliminaries out of the way. With no real villain due to Scrooge’s change of heart, the character of Mach A. Villain, a dastardly lawyer played with much evil zest by Chris Hudson, was introduced. Mach A. Villain, it transpires later has made a Faustian pact with the devil and can follow Scrooge through time and space on his journey with the Christmas ghosts, who replaced the traditional fairy as the supernatural do-gooders of the show.

Kate De Cesare was a groovy 1960s/1970s Abba-look-alike Ghost of Christmas Past while Nathan Brimmer was a Bacchian Ghost of Christmas Present and Michael Grech a silent, grim-reaper-like apparition as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come; whom I found convincing but not particularly engaging, mainly because they seemed to have very little to do other than push the story forward.

Rather, it was Mrs Scratchit, played by an ever-entertaining Isabel Warrington as Bob Cratchit’s dermatologically in­flamed wife, Ralph Mangion’s ghost of Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s one-time partner doomed to walk the earth as a warning to others to change their lives and Joseph Zammit’s Bob Marley, the cheeky, wasted door-knocker who stole the show with their funny wise-cracks and larger-than-life personalities.

Musical pizzazz was added thanks to the music-hall styled performers Les Gals – Katherine Brown, Maxine Calleja Urry, Gianella Mazzola and Faye Micallef Grimaud, who told the tale through fun cabaret-like songs and supported the main cast with very good vocals, along with John Marinelli’s ever-pleasing baritone as Scrooge’s well-meaning nephew Harry. The Cratchit’s brood of children, Kristina Leone Ganado’s Bettina, Stephen Galea’s Peter, Mandy Randon’s Belinda and Tiny Tim, played very well by Miguel Mercieca, were charming in their own way, but of course, it was Alan Montanaro’s Dame which the audience had been waiting for. Dame Vuvuzela appeared quite late in the show as the love-interest of the Young Scrooge played by Yannick Massa, when she pops out of an outsized Christmas cracker in the scene form the past at LS Dizziwig’s Christmas party. Dizziwig, played by Colin Azzopardi, was Scrooge’s old employer before Scrooge was turned into the miserly money-grubber that we all know by Mach A. Villain. Mr Azzopardi, who also played Bob Cratchit, gave a credible performance and complimented Vanessa Attard’s Mrs Dizziwig. Dame Vuvuzela’s entrance transformed the show and it finally began to feel like panto, so much so that by the second half, the audience was in almost constant fits. What Mr Montanaro does so very well is to script excellent lines for the dame and as a consequence, the other characters play off him to great effect. Vuvuzela’s outrageous scenes were doubtlessly the funniest, especially seeing her progress from Christmas past to present to future – becoming a true panto diva, arguing with Game Show Assistant, Emma Ripard and Les Gals in the song-sheet section, and had the audience on their feet dancing Shakira’s Waka Waka, which proved to be great fun.

Ernest Camilleri’s costume designs gave a true Victorian feel to the production as did the choreography by Felix Busuttil, which respected the more traditional musical theatre aspect of the show.

Musical director Paul Abela gave the show its much needed rhythm and also got to flirt with Dame Vuvuzela. Although the sound was rather loud, it did not detract from the production’s quality which, thanks to director Nanette Brimmer, was well-paced and tightly executed. The unscripted and unexpected were just as hilarious, when the children and adults participating in the on-stage games gave plenty of humour for Vuvuzela to feed off, from smart, talkative children to one couple whose male half was called Ġorġ Preca and had the dame genuflecting reverently. Proving that Dame Vuvuzela could certainly take everything in her stride and rise, or in this case, kneel to any occasion!