Broadway

Like a good performing arts editor, I let my freelancers pick which shows they wanted to review for the holidays.

That left me with the Broadway version of the holiday classic.

Before you read the review, know that I loved Beauty and the Beast, and I can sing all of the songs cold. I like musicals. I even like Gilbert & Sullivan. Also, I like the lights people put on their houses for Christmas. I like lights. And greenery. Oh, and children. I like children.

OK, enough ...

*UPDATE: I have changed the ending of the story because I just got an update from Jim Roberts about what they ARE doing as a benefit. So you won't see the original ending anymore, but just for the Internet, I did a strikethrough:

Why, Ebeneezer, Why?
No, you cannot resist the spectacle of ACE’s Christmas Carol
By Suzi Steffen

Costumes glitter, lights twinkle, high school students affect English accents and the juggernaut of a tricked-out Dickensian Christmas sweeps up everyone in its path.

Yep, the Actors Cabaret of Eugene’s A Christmas Carol, Broadway musical version, will leap into your brain, and you’ll leave the theater humming the song “Christmas Together” — that is, unless you run into one of the several Jewish members of the cast, and she or he sings you the special rewritten Jewish version of the all-too-catchy tune. Then you will laugh, remembering there’s a world outside of greenery and ribbons, a world where bells don’t jingle all the time and where grandparents aren’t always bedecked in Santa hats and flashing LED displays.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

For a couple of hours, ACE’s over-the-top celebration of the holiday classic definitely entertains. How you are entertained, exactly, depends on your attitude toward large helpings of schlock — though admittedly it’s schlock with a sweet attitude and a joyful sound. One is not supposed to laugh at the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Be, but did the ghost come from Mordor by way of a rave? And oh, the jacks-in-the-boxes. However: There’s so much to enjoy that Christmas Carol should woo anyone, even Grinchy performing arts editors (and if not, there’s whiskey for sale during intermission).

In the program, director Joe Zingo writes that this version is sure to remind audience members of the first time they saw A Christmas Carol. True. I remember my mom taking my sister and me, dressed in holiday finery, to the Missouri Rep’s annual Carol: Victorian-costumed carolers entertained us in the lobby; The Ghost of Christmas Present seemed three stories tall; Scrooge was mean; the graveyard scene was scary. In short, I remember spectacle. And that means ACE’s show is as it should be. The story can be a bit more realistically bleak, as in the WillRep’s currently running Carol, but for young families wanting a ritual holiday celebration, this Broadway version should work marvelously.

Anyone familiar with Alan Menken’s music will hear echoes of his other musicals (“A Whole New World” from Aladdin, the opening town scene from Beauty and the Beast). Lynn Ahrens’ lyrics stick mostly to the text but deviate enough to provide a Les Miserables-like reference to stars and compassion that leads to the signature line of any Christmas Carol — “God bless us, every one.”

This ACE production celebrates the various families entertwined in the theater’s frequent productions. Did we see some of these same people in Seussical? Did we see them in Bat Boy? In A Christmas Carol, 2006 version? How about in All Shook Up? Yes, yes, we did.

The delightful Ashley Apelzin appears in several roles (including the Ghost of Christmas Past in a wintery wedding-like costume), and Tyler Holden turns his focus from the Cat in the Hat in Seussical to a rather amusing Bob Cratchit here. The two young Cratchits (Maggie Clark as Martha and Bryce Walters as Tiny Tim) charm away, and the ubiquitous Marc Innocenti makes Marley’s Ghost look like the monster in Young Frankenstein. As kind Mr. Fezziwig, Rob Olson stands out, and Kevin Boling uses his knowing countenance to excellent effect as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Other repeat performers fill the stage with lovely tableaux, freezing when the various ghosts speak to a goofy Ebeneezer Scrooge (Bruce McCarthy). The lavish production with its gorgeous costumes and incessant soundtrack showers decorative holiday scenes upon Eugene.

At the end of the recent UO/LCC production of The Threepenny Opera, cast and crew took up a collection for St. Vinny’s, trying to stay true to the play’s message of honoring the poor. If Christmas Carol is about nothing else, it’s about changing the behavior of the wealthy in order to benefit the downtrodden. Perhaps ACE could don that mantle; Roberts and Zingo could easily ask the audience to donate to charities like Amigos Multicultral Center, the Relief Nursery, Looking Glass or other social services ACE dons the mantle of giving with a "Tiny Tim's Food Drive" for FOOD for Lane County, something that a reformed Scrooge would no doubt support. Whether audience members are warm from the glow of alcohol or “Christmas Together,” they'll happily pony up and make the season that much brighter. Without LED lights, at that.

ACE’s A Christmas Carol continues Dec. 7-9, 14-16 and 21-22. Go to www.actorscabaret.org or call 683-4368 for tix.

Here’s a bit a breaking news with interesting timing regarding downtown Eugene. We heard today (Monday, Nov. 19) that the old Symantec Building, aka Bon Marché, at 175 W. Broadway, is getting a major new tenant, a call center for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car.

The facility will employ about 200 people and serve customers of all three car rental companies, according to a statement from Jack Roberts of the Lane Metro Partnership. Hiring is set to begin in February and about 120 of the 200 positions are expected to be full-time.

The announcement follows the defeat at the ballot box of a city measure that would have subsidized a large redevelopment of downtown, mostly along Broadway, but not including the building owned by Connor & Woolley at 175 W. Broadway. The three-story building is on the tax rolls valued at about $5.5 million.

Just in case you've been hiding under a rock (or, like me, you don't watch the TV):

The TV and movie writers are on strike! (And another blog here.) Let me tell you, I have never been so disappointed in Ellen. (Though the article does point out this, It was not clear why the WGA East singled out DeGeneres rather than her syndicated TV peers, including Oprah Winfrey, kitchen guru Rachael Ray or psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw. Hmmmmmmmmmm. Good point!)

However. This is mostly a theater blog, so what concerns me just as much is that the stagehands in New York are on strike — for the first time in their 121 year history.

OMG, if these strikes go on, people might have to start reading books. Crazy times, eh? (Luckily, we're putting out our "Winter Reading" special issue in a couple of weeks ... )

Here's The NY Times' primer on the strike issues on Broadway.
Here's IATSE Local One's website.
Here's the League of American Theaters and Producers' website.

Here are some good blogs about the Broadway stagehands strike:
The Humble Nailbanger
One NYC Stagehand
Steve on Broadway
Full Force Theater Musings

And for kicks, I'm going to paste in my entire article from last January's BRAVO about the stagehands' union in Eugene/Springfield, IATSE Local 675. Those people work freakin' hard, and they work almost every day of the year (when they can — the Hult Center has been a bit underutilized since 9/11, weirdly).

And you know what? This is dangerous work. Sad that the Broadway producers, who are making record profits, want take-backs in the contract.

Read more after the jump.

The city of Eugene withheld the purchase options list for property downtown until after Eugene Weekly went to press with its last issue before the election on Measure 20-134. The list now shows that the city’s land purchase costs have increased from earlier estimates of about $16 million to about $19 million now. The purchase prices average about double the real market value the Lane County Tax assessor has set for the properties. The city has offered some owners up to four times the real market value. For the Bradfords building and adjacent one-eighth-block parking lot owned by Diamond Parking Inc., the city purchase option would trade a city parking lot at 12th and Oak that’s twice as large and pay $290,360 in cash.

For the complete updated Broadway options list, see the end of the updated news story here.