In the spirit of abiding self- delusion, here are five shows I’ll be wishing, and hoping, and praying go ahead, as scheduled
When it comes to predicting the future, I always defer to that old joke about The Big Fella: ‘How do you make God laugh?’ Answer: ‘Tell Him your plans.’
So it is with some trepidation that I make my theatre recommendations for 2021 lest it jinx the year completely.
But in the spirit of abiding self- delusion, here are five shows I’ll be wishing, and hoping, and praying go ahead, as scheduled.
If there’s one production that shouldn’t need divine intervention, it’s surely the musical version of Sister Act, pairing Whoopi Goldberg with Jennifer Saunders. Goldberg, star of the original 1992 film, returns as lounge singer Deloris van Cartier, on the run from the Mafia. Saunders plays the Mother Superior who reluctantly hides her in her San Francisco convent.
âChristmas Carolâ Review: Brooding Scrooge Gets Ghosted
An elaborate production streamed live from London makes a miser out of Andrew Lincoln and the rest of us rich with holiday cheer.
Andrew Lincoln makes for a particularly charismatic, if obstinate, Scrooge in the Old Vic production of “A Christmas Carol.”Credit.Manuel Harlan
Published Dec. 18, 2020Updated Dec. 23, 2020
I woke up with the sight of snow banked against my windowsill, so perfectly even and untouched that it was as if each flake had been placed by hand. Then the mug of hot oatmeal and the donning of the baggiest, fuzziest â and, thus, comfiest â lounge pants I own. What better way to prepare for a matinee performance of âA Christmas Carolâ?
Verdict: God bless them, every one!
Can it be a coincidence that so many theatres are doing A Christmas Carol this year? I think not.
I reckon it s the spirit of Christmases Past, rising up to banish our 2020 blues.
How apt, then, that the biggest Carol, live-streamed from London s Old Vic, features Andrew Lincoln Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes from zombie apocalypse series The Walking Dead.
Rating:
Lincoln, who makes a very macho Ebenezer, must have been tempted to turn a pump-action shotgun on the ghosts who keep interrupting his sleep.
Happily, he submits to Dickens s seasonal message of peace and goodwill with a performance that would make a decent audition for King Lear.
Of all the
Christmas Carols I have seen this season – this was my fifth – Jack Thorne s adaptation takes the story furthest away from Charles Dickens, providing both different motivation and more generic emotion. In Thorne s hands the story shifts from being one about the awakening of compassion and empathy, into one about the healing power of love: Scrooge s willingness to accept that others may love him unlocks his ability to love the world.
It s a very 21st century take on the classic, and one which has provided the Old Vic with a hugely popular Christmas show that is returning to the stage for the fourth year, but this time as part of the theatre s In Camera season where the show is performed live but streamed digitally to an audience around the world. The decision not even to attempt a live audience has proved a very canny one; unlike all those organisations plunged into chaos by the sudden imposition of Tier 3 measures, the Old Vic s plans for a run of digital screenings