Email to a friend Printer friendly Font: * * * * With a cast of roughly 50, Orpheus has the chance to pull out the stops on everything from big choral numbers and touching solos and duets to some terrific choreography (Debbie Millett gets the credit on the dance routines, including the memorable swirl of bonhomie accompanying the song Mr. Fezziwig’s Annual Christmas Ball). The company makes the most of the show’s dark side as well.
Scrooge (Bob Lackey, wholly credible as a man forced to confront himself) isn’t kidding around when, pre-redemption, he fairly spits amid London Christmas Eve bustle, “Damn this silly season/Damn all of human kind.” A cast so large, at least in a non-professional production, pretty much guarantees some unevenness in singing voices and acting ability.
Here, the weaker links are nicely balanced by the strength of players like Rejean Dinelle-Mayer as the tormented Ghost of Jacob Marley, Joyce Landry as the gracious Mrs. Fezziwig, and Jonathan Harris as the perennially optimistic Bob Cratchit. Young Graeme Nommik is a properly heart-tugging moppet of a Tiny Tim, and Orpheus would do well to cultivate several other young cast members as future adult performers.
One hopes, however, that Centrepointe can root the electrical buzz out of its sound system sometime before these youngsters hit adulthood. Artistic and musical directors Michael Gareau and Marlene Hudson, Orpheus veterans both, pace the show smartly, and the orchestra deserves a nod even if patrons were bolting up the aisle long before the musicians played their final notes. Big and cheerful, the production gives Orpheus the chance to strut its stuff in costumes and lighting.