A Tale Of Two Scrooges 2022: A Dickensian Christmas & Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol – Southbank Centre, London

Will I ever run out of versions of A Christmas Carol to see at Christmastime? It doesn’t look like it so far! This year it’s Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol and A Dickensian Christmas, both at the Southbank Centre.

A Christmas Relapse

I tried quite hard to avoid overdosing on A Christmas Carol this year. The past two years I have had a double dose (see 2020 and 2021). I’ve seen traditional ones and retellings. Big productions and small ones. Online shows and live ones. The full gamut of Scrooges, one might think. So this year I set out with the best of intentions of doing something a little different. I love a good Christmas show, but why not branch out a little? So I booked It’s a Wonderful Life, an opera performed by the ENO.

But then… It’s so hard to resist temptation, isn’t it? First Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol was announced at the Southbank Centre. Who doesn’t love Dolly Parton? And what would a version set in the Appalachian Mountains be like? I resisted for a while longer because tickets for this one aren’t cheap, but relented in the end. And through a series of curious circumstances I ended up seeing another version at the Southbank Centre: A Dickensian Christmas. This one alternated readings from A Christmas Carol by Stephen Mangan with a carol singalong, choir and small brass band. Who was I to say no.

Do you want a further Christmas confession? I went to both on the same day! Undoubtedly a full-scale relapse, exacerbated by attempted abstinence… Oh dear. I really don’t recommend that any of my readers follow suit: perhaps just appreciate from a distance by reading on below. And me? Well, I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. Whether or not this means another two versions of A Christmas Carol in 2023 remains to be seen.

Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol

A note: I saw a preview of Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol. I’ve checked reviews to make sure I didn’t say anything out of turn now the production has officially opened.

Now really, who could resist this? Not I. I love a bit of Dolly Parton: she doesn’t feature in this show in person, but has done the music and lyrics (and recorded a pre-show announcement). And the setting has Dolly written all over it. In this version, the Christmas hauntings are set in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee in 1936. I learned a new word actually: haint. So three haints (or four for the purists) are destined to haunt Ebenezer Scrooge, owner of just about everything in the town of Morton’s Hollow.

This is the time of the exploitative practice of company stores, when it wasn’t uncommon for all the workers in a town to be employed by one business (like a mine), and spend their wages in rent and goods sold at prices that kept them in debt. Add in the Great Depression and you get debt slavery and misery: a perfect environment for a miserly old man to be taught a Christmas lesson.

This Scrooge (Robert Bathurst), however, isn’t quite as unredeemable at the outset as most. I can’t imagine the original Scrooge letting a small boy sit quietly in his office, for instance. Or having a back story about a cute puppy. His failed relationship with Belle (Sadie in this version, played by Halle Brown) isn’t even his fault. She’s just a young woman who values economic security and knows that her only direct influence over this is in choosing the right man. Rather different than the frequently insipid original character. So while the plot is largely left untouched, it’s not a like-for-like translation to the Appalachian Mountains.

Worth A Look?

Despite this somewhat softer approach to the character of Scrooge, the new setting works well. It has similarities to Victorian London in the inequalities and frequent poverty of the inhabitants, but with a new perspective to offer. It feels nostalgic: Dolly Parton grew up here in a large family (admittedly later than the 1930s), and songs like Wish Book about the power of the Sears & Roebuck catalogue to open up new worlds to people with simple lives feel like they could come from her lived experience. There is a full creative team on the other hand formed of David H. Bell (book), Paul T. Crouch (executive producer/adaptor) and Curt Wollan (book adaptation) so that could be reading too much into Parton’s involvement.

The set design by Scott Davis is simple. It basically all takes place in the company store, with basic props used to evoke other locations. It is open and unpretentious enough not to detract from the cast and musicians. And the musicians are superb. There is a percussionist, guitarist, double bass player, violinist, and a banjo/mandolin player. One of the musicians even has a role as a haint, but I won’t say more than that.

I don’t pretend that it was a perfect version of A Christmas Carol. The production values were high but I couldn’t always make out the words to the songs sung by a lone voice. And one song depends on a small child hitting a high note: a risky move. But it’s full of heart, and had at least one audience member near me in tears by the time the redemption came around. If you’re ok with the ticket prices you could do a lot worse for a Christmas show. Best seen with a group of friends: arrive in time to enjoy a mulled wine beforehand.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3.5/5

Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol on until 8 January 2023

A Dickensian Christmas

After a brief interlude in which I had a mulled wine myself and a bratwurst at the Southbank Centre’s Christmas market, I made my way over to the Royal Festival Hall for A Christmas Carol 2023: Part II. This time I was here to see A Dickensian Christmas. This was a one-off event so unfortunately you are too late to see it this year. But from what conductor Hilary Davan Wetton was saying to the audience, it’s a regular event: look out for it in 2023 if you’re interested.

This one had a bit of everything. There was a satisfyingly large choir (the City of London Choir plus Brighton Festival Chorus to be precise). The London Brass were there too. And Stephen Mangan to read extracts from A Christmas Carol. One thing I was excited about was that there was an organist to play the extremely large Royal Festival Hall pipe organ (with almost 8,000 pipes). And to top it all off – we were handed sheets of lyrics at the door to join in some of the carols! And the good old Victorian ones too. What bliss! What Christmas spirit!

Worth A Look?

Most definitely. Of the two Christmas Carols I saw in one day, this was my preferred one. Hilary Davan Wetton is not the easiest of conductors to please as an audience of amateurs, but his style grew on me. I didn’t even mind that from my seat I couldn’t see Stephen Mangan at all. It just made it a bit like an audio book.

The readings from A Christmas Carol were extremely abridged. Just the absolutely key elements to get through the plot. But we all know the story well enough one way or another for our brains to fill in the gaps and imagine the rest (unless that’s just me?). And the carol singing was seriously satisfying. Since we were all there to sing, there was no bashful muttering or mouthing of the lyrics. We could do our best to sing Good King Wenceslas, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and the rest, and try to up the 6/10 Wettan had given us early on.

Where Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol is perfect as a fun afternoon or evening with friends, A Dickensian Christmas is perfect for those really looking to get into the Christmas spirit. The choir in red robes, the brass band entering with top hats on: it was delightfully atmospheric. I had a great time, and would happily go again! Maybe I’m going to be keeping up with this annual tradition after all.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

A Dickensian Christmas took place on 8 December 2022. Check the Southbank Centre website for similar events in future.