I figured I’d better write a recap of the first show I went to on Wednesday night, before I start feverishly writing down how my wonderful second viewing went!
My boss came along with me, and she was kind enough to offer to drive to the theatre which made things a lot less stressful for me! It was actually pretty easy to get to, and there was a parking garage nearby. Because I had only purchased the tickets a few days beforehand, the best seats we were able to get were the very back row of the orchestra. Thankfully, it was a small theatre, so even seats at the very back were good seats.
I did the traditional “your playbill held up to the stage” photo, tagged Nehal in it, and posted it on Instagram. I made my boss also do MY traditional “playbill covering half of our face” selfie with me. Gotta keep spreading that tradition, it’s great because then nobody can complain about how they hate how they look in the pictures!
The stage was pretty sparse and rustic looking, with a few window frames hanging from wires to give the illusion of an older city, and an antique looking ghost light in the middle of the stage. The lights all went dark after the show started, with a single spotlight illuminating the ghost light, then the five actors all came out to surround it and started talking about what a ghost light is for, and how this was going to be a ghost story.
I went in with zero information about what the show was going to be about, but it was basically a parody of A Christmas Carol, with a lot of silly Jersey jokes thrown in here and there. Apparently when ever it’s performed elsewhere, they update the name and have to swap out all the topical jokes for other ones that fit wherever it’s playing. One actor plays Scrooge and only Scrooge, but all the other four swap out and play multiple parts throughout the show. It was very much a… what do you call it when there’s no real main character, and every actor is equally important? And ensemble show? I’m not sure if that’s the correct term, but it is very much THAT.
Everyone took terms doing the narration, but Nehal also played Scrooge’s nephew Fred, young Scrooge, and (of all things) Tiny Tim. The other non-Scrooge guy actor played Bob Cratchit, Mr Fezzi (who sells wigs), Jacob Marley, and both of Fred’s two children. There were two women actors, one slightly older who played The Ghost of Christmas Past (with a hilariously thick Jersey accent), Mrs Cratchit, and Fred’s wife. The other one played The Ghost of Christmas Present (I’ll have to do a whole paragraph on her later), the Isabelle character (called Lavinia in this version for some reason), and the little boy who buys the prize turkey for the Cratchits. There were a few other minor roles sprinkled throughout the show, like Nehal playing a guy who’s trying to bribe people to attend Scrooge’s funeral, but those were the main ones.
In addition to there being such a stripped down cast, the majority of the stage and prop manipulation was also left up to the cast. So they not only act, but also do a lot of the crew work over the course of the entire show. There was a door prop on wheels that they had to move about constantly to fit with whatever scene they were using it for, and there were several things like chests that were used in multiple scenes for multiple purposes. Scrooge’s bed was an ingenious bit of staging where Scrooge kept standing up, while Nehal held a pillow up behind his head, another actor the bedside table facing outwards to the audience with a candle and Scrooge’s ledger affixed to it with magnets, and another actor held a loose frame with the bedclothes hanging from it, so when the pieces were all together, they were just standing on the stage but it looked like we had a birds-eye view over Scrooge sleeping in his bed. It was SO clever!
There were also scenes with a group of carolers (called The Sons of Pitches, ha!) that Scrooge accosts, and rather than rushing through a costume change and getting props for the carolers, the four actors playing them just stood lined up across the stage, and each lifted up a thin panel in the stage floor, and pulled up a roll of fabric with an illustration of a caroler from the neck-down. It was basically like a window shade, that you pulled up instead of down. Because only their heads were showing, everyone made it a point to ham it up as much as they could, Nehal in particular made the most hilarious face, and gave his caroler such a ridiculous speaking voice. He sounded like the gingerbread man from Shrek.
The whole cast was very well-versed in physical comedy. During the opening scene at Scrooge’s office, both Scrooge’s Nephew, the two charity workers and Bob Cratchit made a big show of miming that they were getting blown around by the outside winds, which got big laughs every time.
You know it’s funny, because Scrooge’s nephew is a part of A Christmas Carol that I’m mostly never satisfied with. The way Fred is described in the book is very particular, as far as his personality goes, and I’ve never seen a Fred in movies, or live performances who feels “right” to me, but Nehal might be the best Scrooge’s nephew that I’ve ever seen. He walked that line between being upbeat and cheerful without making it grating, and he had such sincerity when trying to convince Scrooge to please join him for Christmas dinner. 10/10, best Fred of all time. At one point when Scrooge turns down Christmas dinner yet again, Fred pulls out a sweater with a Jets logo on it, and says that his wife knitted it for Scrooge. That also got a big laugh, but I’m sure some deeper hilarity was lost on me. I don’t even follow New England sports!
They go through most of the expected beats of a Christmas Carol, with a few changes to sell the “Jersey” part of the story a bit more. It’s taking place in New Jersey instead of England, so apart from Scrooge and the flashbacks to his youth, nobody had to put on an English accent. Because in this version, Scrooge as a young man, decided to move to New Jersey to seek his fortune, instead of staying in England.
The two charity workers were played by the ladies, and they were pretty hilarious. There was a running gag where one of them kept pronouncing things wrong and she would respond, “That’s what I said.” There a nice little insert after Scrooge tells the charity workers to scat, where Bob Cratchit gets up from where he’s been sitting wrapped in a blanket, and gives them a couple of pennies. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in a theatrical adaptation before, but it’s a nice way to drive home how kind and generous of a person Bob is.
After the scenes in his office, they transitioned pretty quickly to getting Scrooge home, but having him stop to buy an egg along the way. They made a very big show of having him cut the egg into five equal pieces, and sprinkle it with paprika before eating it. It seemed a very odd thing to spend so much time on, but a quick Google tells me that egg farming is bit in Jersey, so maybe this was another bit of Jersey commentary that went right over my head?
They did the Jacob Marley on the door knocker thing by having the guy who played Jacob stand inside the door and hold up a frame with a bit of stretchy nylon type fabric stretched across it, and push his face through it while a spotlight shone on it. I wasn’t sure if they were going for “funny” or “creepy” with that, but it was at least an innovative approach? Then there was a funny gag where Scrooge latches the million locks on his door, culminating with him miming that he’s arming a security system, complete with little beeps, and a recorded voice that said, “Front door, now secure.” They repeated the same joke when he locks himself in his bedroom.
I almost forgot about one other funny thing they did during the scenes where Scrooge is on his way home. They talk about how dark and foggy it is, and they have the other actors hold spray cans that leave misty clouds everywhere, and they spray them all around Scrooge and his head, much to his irritation. Later on when Jacob Marley appears, he also has a mist spray can, and he even hands it off to someone in the front row to hold for him while he accosts Scrooge. He was another character with a lot of comic relief. Yelling out, “It’s a METAPHOR,” when Scrooge points out his chains. He grabbed his spray can back from the audience member before spraying his misty way back off-stage.
After Scrooge heads to bed, the Ghost of Christmas Past shows up, decked out in white, and hanging onto a ladder that rolls across the back of the stage. She had a hilariously thick Jersey accent and a lot of the topical Jersey jokes came from her. She also joked about how they were flying “Spirit” airways. Scrooge clambers up the other side of the ladder with her, and they’re whisked away to Scrooge’s youth and a cricket match of all things.
Nehal, the younger woman, and the other guy all played British school boys in little striped jackets and caps. The scene would occasionally freeze so the ghost and Scrooge could talk, and at one point Nehal freezes with the spotlight on him, one leg up on the stage, cricket bat slung over his shoulder, his head thrown back with a ridiculous open-mouthed grin on his face. Scrooge walks over and says something like, “My goodness, is that really me?” and the ghost says, “You look SO happy!” It got a great laugh. The little posh English accent he did for child Scrooge was adorable, as were all the goofy mannerisms he did to sell that he was supposed to be a child. We watch poor little Scrooge get SO excited because he thinks he’s finally going to be invited to play cricket with the other boys, because three boys are absent because of confirmation, the pox, and one other thing I forgot. Scrooge’s hopes are dashed when they decide to recruit a literal CHAIR to the team instead of Scrooge, and he looks out over the audience absolutely devastated and says, “But I’m a person.” I think that line is supposed to get a laugh, but with Nehal’s big sad puppy dog eyes, everyone felt so bad for little Scrooge that there wasn’t even a chuckle.
Next was a quick little scene at Mr Fezzi’s Christmas party. Mr Fezzi sells wigs. Nehal was being the narrator when the name gag was explained, “Everyone LOVED Mr Mr Fezzi’s wigs,” and I thought it was hilarious, but nobody in the house even chuckled at it. I don’t know if they’re just missing the joke or what, but I thought turning Mr Fezziwig into a guy named Mr Fezzi who sells wigs was peak A Christmas Carol humor. Mr Fezzi was pretty funny, at one point he said, “Six seven!” and all the parents in the audience lost it.
Nehal continues to play young Scrooge, but this time as a young man, newly starting out in the business. They had some dress dummies up on the stage, made up to be Mr Fezzi’s customers, Lady Gaga, and Lady Footlocker. I thought that was a pretty weak joke, but it got more laughs than, “Mr Fezzi’s wigs”. This scene is where we first meet Isabelle/Lavinia, and get our first taste of what’s to come with their relationship, when Scrooge gets mad at her for plucking a sprig of mistletoe from one of the party decorations, and him lamenting how much it cost, and how it comes out of the marketing budget. That made my boss and I laugh, because we know all about marketing budgets.
We learn that Scrooge is planning on moving to New Jersey along with Isabelle/Lavinia to increase his fortune, but she turns him down on the day when they’re supposed to set off for America on a steamship in the honeymoon suite. After she leaves, Scrooge decides to still go to America without her, and yells out his first humbug at the porter as he storms his way aboard.
It’s interesting, because for the first time, I actually felt real pity for Scrooge during the rejection scene between him and Isabelle/Lavinia. In other versions, Scrooge’s mean, miserly side has already been showing itself and when Isabelle leaves him, you don’ t get any sense that there’s much regret on young Scrooge’s part. It’s always OLD Scrooge who really sells the regret, showing that it took time for him to realize how much he was losing when he let Isabelle go. This version did it quite differently, Scrooge is still absolutely smitten with Isabelle/Lavinia, and loves her deeply, but he is misguided and thinks that in order to love her, he needs to make sure her every need is provided for. So he spends all his time working and trying to earn money for HER, but all she wants is him to spend quality time with her, not his money. There is talk about how he missed her birthday, and wasn’t there when her mother went through an illness. Scrooge is just not getting it, and gets down on one knee and tells her, “I’ll buy you anything you want.” But all she wants is him to not be this crazy workaholic. In his mind though, he NEEDS to be a workaholic to provide her with the life she deserves, he even says in an earlier scene, “My wife shall never want for anything.” These small changes made this scene so much more painful, having Scrooge be full of regret right from the start. It was so different from the usual, “If you met me now, a dowry-less woman, would you still want me?” and Scrooge responding with silence. Nehal even had a tear rolling down his face at the end of the scene. It also made it clear that this is the moment where Scrooge started to change from someone who was capable of devotion and kindness, to the miser he grew to be.
Even though his perceived rejection by Isabelle/Lavinia made such an enormous change in Scrooge’s character, he still holds a torch for her, and keeps her portrait hung in his house. Shown to hilarious effect by the woman who played her standing at the back of the stage with a picture frame held around her face, and making an extremely silly open-mouthed smile. As enjoyable of a show that it was, there was something a little off in the overall tone. For the most part it was a comedy, with specific Jersey jokes peppered throughout the whole show. Some I got, jokes about Wegman’s and Wawa, and one about a local mall was pretty self-explanatory. Others I didn’t get, that’s the price you pay when you’re not a Jersey person, and you’re watching a Jersey show. But, for all the jokes and silliness, every now and then there were scenes that were extremely emotional, and the balance just felt a little off because of this. Not that shows need to always have constant comedy for them to work, but some of the tonal shifts of this show were particularly jarring.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Next was the Ghost of Christmas Present, played hilariously by the younger woman done up in a furry pink jacket, with a Labubu dangling from her belt, taking videos of Scrooge for TikTok. I thought that having her be actually from the present was a pretty clever gag, and it made for a lot of fun with Scrooge being befuddled by her modern trappings and twerking. She pulls out a couple of electric scooters for her and Scrooge, and they use those to travel on to their first scene in the present while Livin’ On A Prayer plays, and Scrooge grumbles that he’s going to kill himself on the scooter.
The first scene they visit is the Cratchit house where we get our first appearance from Tiny Tim, played by Nehal walking on his knees with a tiny puppet body draped over the front of him, complete with two arms with those viral tiny plastic hands. Tiny Tim had the audience absolutely ROARING. Especially when his mother brought him a figgy pudding and Tiny Tim started to eat it with his tiny plastic hands. For most of the scene Tim was sitting on a box for a chair with his crutch beside him, but the crutch got knocked off, and Nehal made a big show of making it look like Tiny Tim was using his tiny quivering arms to pick it up. My boss and I were both absolutely crying with laughter while he was doing this, and he wasn’t even the focus of the scene, we were supposed to be paying attention to Mr and Mrs Cratchit. At one point Tim squeals that the Sons of Pitches are singing outside, and all the Cratchits gather at the window to listen to them. Tiny Tim was definitely the character that got the most laughs of the whole show.
After the Cratchits, the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to his nephew’s house with Nehal playing Fred again, the older woman playing Fred’s wife Jenny, and the other guy playing BOTH parts of the son and daughter by switching between a pair of hats, one a straw hat with Pippi Longstocking style blonde braids sticking out from either side, and the other a little plaid newsboy cap. It was terribly funny watching the guy rapidly switch between being the son or the daughter and changing his voice. Near the end of the scene Fred talks about how much he loves his beautiful family, and the guy holds both hats on his head at the same time and made the goofiest face. It was definitely a close second to Tiny Tim in terms of humor levels.
The story takes a bit of a turn when it’s time for the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. All the non-Scrooge actors play the ghost as they stand together in a line behind Scrooge, draped in robes. They are supposed to be invisible to him, because HE is blind. METAPHOR! But there weren’t any laughs or silliness during the views of the futures, so it made for a very odd tonal shift near the end of the show. Like we had spent such a long time laughing at Tiny Tim, but now suddenly Bob and Mrs Cratchit are crouching over a tiny bed, talking about how ill he is, and how he begs for water but they’re afraid he’ll choke on it because he’s so weak, with Nehal coughing off stage before he suddenly dies and his parents start weeping over him, before folding down the bed into a chest that doubles as a coffin for him, that they “bury” in a trap door on the stage. It was SO somber, and SO sad, but it was really hard to get emotionally invested in such a serious scene after Tiny Tim had been nothing but comic relief earlier.
There are a few jokes made about them not even being able to pay people to attend Scrooge’s funeral, because he was so disliked, but for the most part all of the scenes taking place in the future were incredibly serious, and it was odd to go from laughing to… not laughing.
But of course Scrooge wakes up and realizes he has a chance to fix things, at least for Tiny Tim. The guy who played Bob Cratchit popped out from under his vertical bed covers to shout the line, “Giddy as a drunken man!” and that got a nice big surprising laugh. Scrooge asks the young boy to buy the turkey for the Cratchits, then he finds Bob Cratchit cutting firewood to cook the turkey and tells him he’s going to make him a partner in the business, and is going to get the best pediatrician in New Jersey to help make Tiny Tim well, then he said a man’s name and everyone in the audience laughed, so that must have been another Jersey joke that just went over my head.
Scrooge then runs into the Sons of Pitches again, and he decides to turn his accounting business into THE VERY THEATRE THAT WE’RE STANDING IN, OMG! He invites the Sons of Pitches to perform that night, and we the audience are going to be privileged to see the very first production of Ebeneezer Scrooge’s Big Jersey Christmas Show! Nehal, and the other three actors come out with musical instruments, and they all start playing together. Nehal had an acoustic guitar, and younger woman had an electric ukulele, the older woman had a washboard, and the other guy played a wooden drum and an accordion. They sounded really good together! They sang Deck the Halls first, but then they switched to Jingle Bells and encouraged everyone to clap and sing along.
Scrooge ran around with a basket of candy canes that he started flinging out into the audience, then he split the audience into two halves, and had us compete to see which side was better at singing Jingle Bells. I was smack in the middle of the theater, so I just chose Nehal’s side of course! After Jingle Bells they sang Feliz Navidad, which was lots of fun. Then Scrooge wished everyone a Merry Christmas, and Tiny Tim came out for a final appearance. It was funny because Nehal had to sneak out from off-stage with his back to the crowd to avoid spoiling the surprise, until he turns around and you see he’s wearing the Tim puppet again. And that was the show!
It was a really fun show, and happily my boss also had a really good time. I would have felt bad if I’d dragged her out to a show and she didn’t enjoy it, but I should have known that any show with Nehal, will be a good one.
I already wrote about how I missed seeing him at the stage door that night, but after missing getting to see him, AND knowing that he had gone out to the lobby looking for me, I just couldn’t resist getting a ticket to the show the following night, so I could definitely get to see him and say hello. But I’ll recap that separately in another entry. To be continued!
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