Goodman’s A Christmas Carol Warms Our Icy Hearts

By Julienne Bilker in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 18, 2009 10:05PM

It would be fair to say that we’re not exactly “good tidings of comfort and joy” types. We eschew most things of the cheesy variety - excepting actual cheese, of course - and press releases for “fun for the whole family” shows meet our trash boxes more often than they’re flagged for further consideration. Although we’d heard good things, it was with a hearty amount of skepticism that we decided to check out Goodman Theatre’s 32nd annual production of A Christmas Carol.

Lovers of holiday cheer: rejoice. You win. This show is fun, sweet and earnest. There’s even a slight chance that we got a bit teary toward the end, but we admit nothing.

As Scrooge, Larry Yando takes full advantage of every comedic opportunity without compromising his, um, Scrooginess. It’s impressive that he’s seemingly still having a great time with a role he’s inhabited for several seasons. Characters that could be cartoon-like or one-dimensional are satisfyingly fleshed out - there are some really nice performances from Ron Rains and Christine Sherrill (Bob and Mrs. Cratchit) in particular, but admirable work from the whole ensemble of actors and musicians (and musical actors) is what makes this production successful.

We did have a few small problems. We were occasionally bothered by some inconsistent accents amongst the British upper-class, although our ears adjusted by the end of the first act. Speaking of the first act - the story's familiarity worked against us, as we wanted things to speed up just a touch.

The biggest distractions, however, were the set and special effects. Perhaps it’s because we happen to know that Goodman originally planned to retire the current set after last season, but we could see how old it is. We liked set designer Todd Rosenthal’s use of large pieces to make the space more intimate, but we wish he’d been given the opportunity to give it a full overhaul. More troublesome than wagons (aka rolling platforms on which the set sits) in need of paint touch-ups were the special effects. Hologram-type effects and projections are used a few times, for example when the ghost of Jacob Marley appears in a portrait, but the technology looks dated. We know Goodman has the resources to step it up.

Bottom line - this show is really just lovely. Yes, we said lovely. Now if you’ll excuse us, it’s time for our afternoon tea and biscuits.

A Christmas Carol, through December 31, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn. Tickets $25-$74 (half-price/$10 student tickets/group discounts available), 312-443-3811.