A CHRISTMAS CAROL: PATRICK STEWART’S ONE-MAN STAGE SHOW (1988) I’ll come right out and admit it – I’ve always been a sucker for any version of A Christmas Carol. Trouble is, most adaptations distort the story or are produced by people who don’t seem to “get” the story or treat it like it’s a children’s tale. Anyone who thinks that needs to read the novel.
My love of mythology is partly why I love the story so much. A Christmas Carol is the closest thing to an Epic Myth the Industrial Age has produced. The language Dickens uses is very close to prose poetry but precious few adaptations of the story preserve enough of it.
That brings us to Patrick Stewart’s one-man stage presentation of A Christmas Carol. (NOT the made-for- tv movie he did on TNT) Stewart does all the voices and pretty much all the sound effects and his presentation is magnificent. It’s NOT a book-on-tape, it’s Patrick Stewart acting out the story by himself, like he did on Broadway in the 1980s.
Stewart clearly “gets” the story and includes all the crucial parts that many adaptations omit, and since he’s taking the lines faithfully from the book, it’s also made clear, like in the book ,that MARLEY IS NOT JEWISH, he’s referred to in the book as a Christian, just like Scrooge is.
If people want to get on Dickens for his anti-semitic portrayal of Fagin in the novel Oliver Twist (where he is not the cleaned-up, loveable rogue that Fagin is in the musical Oliver!) feel free to, but let’s abandon this bizarre notion which people have been pushing that Marley is supposed to be an anti-semitic Jewish caricature.
Anyway, the audio release of Patrick Stewart’s one-man show (available since the late 1980s) is my all-time favorite of the literally dozens of adaptations of A Christmas Carol that I own. It is genuinely moving, not schmaltzy and I have to admit I cry in several spots each time I listen to this production.
And in honor of Patrick Stewart’s performance I’ll close by saying “Ga-Lang! Ga-Lang!”
FOR MORE CHRISTMAS CAROL COVERAGE CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/category/a-christmas-carol-2/
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Wow. It’s as good as all that, eh? I’ve never heard it. I’ve always been kind of dubious about it, because frankly, I didn’t care for Stewart’s performance as Scrooge in the 1999 TV version.
I agree about the TNT version, but this audio version is incredible.
I think your review gives his hammy performance too much credit.
Yes, it may be that I love the story so much that I overrate his performance.
This was before Stewart stooped to that mess called Star Trek: Picard.
Yes. Decades before.
is this audio that good?
In my opinion, yes.