The Astonishing Times Of Timothy Cratchit is the latest in a string of brave, bold and fantastic productions from the Hope / Aria team, and brings this season's epics to a seasonal finish. With a book by Allan Knee and music / lyrics by Andre Catrini it is yet another new-to-me Musical which I have had the pleasure of experiencing this year. [2019 really has been the Year Of Musicals!] Timothy Cratchit, as most of you will have already presupposed is the same person as the Tiny Tim in Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol', and this musical markets itself as perhaps a sequel to that famous book, telling the story of the now not-so-tiny Timothy as a teenager, growing up and finding his place in the world.
It is a conventional book musical with dialogue interspersed with songs, but I did find much of the dialogue very clunky and predictable, and although the songs were in the main quite catchy, there was nothing there which really gave me the earworm I desired in order to remember the show after curtain. It's a very "nice" story:given the 'Jackanory' feel to it by having olden-day footlights at the front of the stage and having our protagonist address the audience directly as he narrates his own story as it unfolds. It goes where you think it will, and it is family-oriented and inoffensive. We see a very happy and jolly Ebenezer Scrooge doting on his ward, Timothy Cratchit, and we see him find it difficult to allow Tim to forge his own path in life and we see him visited by the ghosts and demons of his past again, and eventually a reconcilliation between them just before he passes away. We see Timothy himself first find no need of the walking stick, and then suddenly take off his caliper too to find that his leg has miraculously healed and he is completely able-bodied. He finds love, experiences friendships, and eventually finds his true metier as a theatrical clown / performer.. courtesy of the enigmatic and over-the-top Grimaldi. Yes there are a few darker and more sinister moments in the musical but they are kept to a minimum and the whole is kept very light with some humour [some of which simply didn't land this evening for whatever reason].
My misgivings with the script / story / music notwithstanding, the cast all gave excellent performances against a backdrop of seven cleverly designed mirrors which, although perhaps not optimal, and the stage management team were evidenced on more than one occasion behind them - they did make some nice effects, especially for the return of the ghosts to haunt Scrooge. I did enjoy the candelabra though, this was most effective and worked well throughout.
Heading this strong cast was an immediately personable and likeable Ryan Kopel as the (almost) 16 year old Timothy Cratchit, and we watch him grow and mature over the next couple of years from being dominated by Scrooge to blossoming as a young man in his own right. His eagerness and fresh-faced wonder at even the harshest of setbacks was lovely, and one couldn't help but warm to him and root for him all the way through. The one thing I simply failed to understand though was why he was speaking in a Scottish accent...? Act one is rather exposition heavy and still tries to hang on to the fact that these characters are developments from Dickens' creations, and this does slow it down somewhat. Paul Greenwood's Scrooge is either gushing with love and bonhomie or is tyrannically ranting and has nothing in between, but the second act sees him deterioate with age and soften more and thus become both more human and also less a part of the plot. Indeed, the more the musical steers away from Dickens the more it seems to benefit.
Michael Matus makes for an imposing and stage-commanding figure on his every entrance as the real-life clown Grimaldi. [he also had the most powerful singing voice too] His arrogance and baffoonery as well as his violent mood swings are well-placed - even his awful mock Italian accent works well to begin with. However once he is unmasked why does he still persist speaking that way? His character (or perhaps caricature) is also too big in comparison with the rest of the cast at times too. Grimaldi's circus troupe all had their own individual characteristics and made for a disparate band of strolling players befitting the era. I especially warmed to Hannah Brown's mute Momo and Dmitri Gripari's Giorgio. Helen Pearson played the dual role of Mrs Linden and Mrs Poole; one a soft and devoted housekeeper to Scrooge and the other a hard-nosed but fair and loveable landlady, and she switched with ease. Love interest was provided for in the form of chambermaid Lucy, played by Sammy Graham, and her duets with Kopel were perhaps the most memorable and more poignant of the evening.
The ensemble and smaller characters were all strong and well-suited. There was one thing however which didn't work so well for me, and that was employing actor / musicians. A seven-piece band, hidden out of sight played live throughout; however, this was ameliorated with three characters on stage who played trumpet, clarinet and violin. I am mostly very much against the use of actor / musicians in roles which are not meant to have an instrument. Sometimes however, one can either overlook and forget this entirely by being so consumed in the plot that their instruments become 'invisible' or a real virtue is made out of their having an instrument with them. Sadly neither of these instances was true for this evening and they just looked and felt wrong the whole evening. It would have been far preferable to have included those timbres in the off-stage band and had no instruments on stage.
If you're still unsure of the flavour and feel of this show, then all told the musical could be described as a complete mixture between 'Pippin', 'Scrooge', and 'Oliver!' had they been combined and written by Leslie Briscusse! The show is high energy, family-friendly and just the kind of Musical you need to put you in the Christmas spirit.. full of good vibes and of course a happy end. Hope Mill Theatre assures a warm welcome and the musical a more than pleasant diversion from the modern commercialisation of Christmas and the grey weather outside!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 27/11/19
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