A Christmas Carol by LMTO

The story of A Christmas Carol needs no introduction, a festive favourite with music by Alan Menken and Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Performed by London Musical Theatre Orchestra and some big Musical Theatre singers in concert format, this was a night I had been looking forward to for a while.

LMTO really excelled themselves with A Christmas Carol. The orchestra with Freddie Tapner at the helm sounded simply wonderful from the very first note of the overture. This version of A Christmas Carol deals with the range of human emotions behind this story wonderfully, bringing to the fore not only wealth and greed but also love and compassion.

Griff Rhys Jones took on the role of Ebenezer Scrooge and he embodied the ‘Bah Humbug’ spirit of Scrooge down to a T, meaning that his transformation at the end was particularly joyful to watch. The ghosts of Christmas past, present and future were played by Miriam-Teak Lee, Cedric Neal and Lucie Jones. They were all delightful to watch and brought their own very different personalities and performances to each of the ghosts. Cedric Neal and the ensemble of A Christmas Carol’s performance of the upbeat ‘Abundance and Charity’ was a particular highlight with Neal’s voice soaring over the tight ensemble harmonies.

Lucie Jones also took on the role of Emily, Scrooge’s younger self’s love interest, playing opposite Jon Tarcy. ‘A Place Called Home’ gave them both a chance to show off their vocal ability (in contrast to Jones’ silent but eerie ghost of Christmas Future) and resulted in a touching scene between the pair. David Hunter took on the role of Bob Crachit who totally won me over with his attitude towards Tiny Tim, my only complaint was that we didn’t hear more of him!

There were also 4 very talented children in the show from Tobias Ungleson who cracked the infamous line ‘God Bless you, everyone’ with a huge ahhh factor as Tiny Tim and Mickey Impiazzi who achieved some of the biggest laughs of the night.

The staging was simple but for this concert version it needed to do little more than let the music speak for itself. The small moments of movement came across naturally and not over choreographed resulting in a laid back feeling throughout the show.

I cannot recommend this concert enough to immerse yourself in festivities. A wonderfully, classy and enjoyable night out that will turn any Scrooge into a Tiny Tim.

A Christmas Carol is also on Monday 17th December at the Lyceum Theatre.

If you like this review you may also like my review of The Churchill Theatre’s Pantomime, Cinderella, Plaid Tidings at Bridge House Theatre or Girlfriends also by LMTO