The Palladium seats nearly 2300 people. At Wednesday’s matinee, maybe a dozen of us were younger than 68-year-old Tommy Steele, who’s in the title role. Yes, indeed: Tommy Steele as Scrooge. What next – Timmy Mallett as Dracula? The power of Charles Dickens’ story is that it shows the redemption of a truly unpleasant, even menacing man. Steele’s Scrooge is about as unlikeable as Bert the grouchy Muppet. He’s panto-wicked.
Ah, but this is hardly pure Dickens. It’s the musical version by Leslie Bricusse, first seen in a 1970 movie starring Albert Finney and trundling around since as a stage vehicle first for Anthony Newley and now Steele. So that’s syrupified it to begin with. The songs are the kind of Brit-musical stuff they used to sell almost by the yard. Only one number, “Thank You Very Much”, even approaches memorableness.
The staging... well, you can’t fault it. Paul Kieve is the West End’s most reliable designer of stage illusions, and he does the job efficiently here. The Ghost of Christmas Present makes an adequate try at almost being John Rhys Davies, and the kids’ ensemble involves several members of the Langford family. Victorian frocks and jollity abound, even when not strictly appropriate. Tiny Tim’s chirping is unintelligible.
But there’s only room for one name on the marquee. The next most recognisable actor is Barry Howard, dimly remembered as the ballroom dancer in Hi-De-Hi. This is Tommy Steele’s show, and he’s not going to let a little thing like playing a git stand in the way of his usual affable-Bermondsey-bloke shtick. Every chance he gets, he’s tipping us the wink that Scrooge isn’t really bad and he isn’t really Scrooge anyway.
Oh, but Steele hogs the spotlight. Literally. His follow-spot operator hardly gets a second’s rest in two and a half hours, poor soul. Even when all else is gloom, Tommy remains spotlit. There’s nothing really wrong with it as such, I suppose, but it’s the kind of Christmas treat that’ll rot your teeth. Look, I know it’s obvious, but I’ll surely never get a better opportunity to say it, so here goes: Bah! Humbug!
Written for Teletext.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.
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