The classic Christmas stories, coming to a stage near you
Two classic and universal holiday tales will dominate local stages in December
One was British, one was Russian. One wrote books, and the other wrote music. But still, Charles Dickens and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky had a lot on common. Both of them visited Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Both of them complained. Dickens, visiting in 1867, complained that no good-looking women came to his readings.
Tchaikovsky complained, in May 1891, about the ugly slicker he had to put on when he got on the elevator for the Cave of the Winds tour.
And another thing both men had in common: Neither guessed the influence he would have on Western New York’s holiday seasons for centuries to come.
Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” are like the holly and the ivy, like Donner and Blitzen. They dominate our Decembers.
There could be a reason for that. The holidays are a time when people love to revel in tradition. And both these masterpieces –the ultimate Christmas book, and the ultimate Christmas ballet –offer a chance to go back in time. They waft us back to the Victorian age.
A tree grows on stage
Tchaikovsky received the commission for “The Nutcracker” in 1891, the same year he visited Niagara Falls. The ballet was based on “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” by E.T.A. Hoffman, known for his surreal stories.
Dec. 6, BalletMet will strive to take viewers back to that earlier era when the troupe presents “The Nutcracker” at Shea’s Performing Arts Center. For the third year in a row, BalletMet will be accompanied, live, by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
“When we created this version, we wanted to make it full of all the traditional elements, so all those pieces are in there,” Gerard Charles, the artist director of BalletMet, explains in his charming English accent. “It’s amazing how many people don’t know the story,” he adds. “So we’ve added touches here and there, amusing things here and there. It makes it a very rich production.”
And here is a novel addition: “The voice of Roger Moore is heard throughout –not too much, but giving a little hint of the story line,” Charles confides.
BalletMet strives to hook adults as well as kids by paying attention to subtle things –the magic tricks Drosselmeyer performs, the comic interaction among the children. Some of these touches, Charles says, were suggested by the child dancers themselves. “They start thinking, ‘I can do this here!’ Most of the time they’re pretty spot on,” he laughs.
Promised is a Christmas tree that, miraculously, grows 20 feet on stage. Also, Charles boasts that the Nutcracker’s jaw works, which didn’t last year. “And the snow scene, I hear that over and over, but I never tire of hearing that,” he says. “I am fond of the whole look of that scene.”
To complete the winter wonderland, Shea’s itself gets in on the act. “We focus on the whole entire experience,” says marketing director Lisa Grisanti. “Our theater is beautifully decorated for the holidays, and we have the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra live, which differentiates us from other ‘Nutcrackers.’”
Besides the tree on stage, Shea’s promises three Christmas trees in the lobby. “One in the intermission lounge, one at the top of the grand staircase, one on the third floor. We have actual Nutcracker statues in our lobby. We’re all decorated.”
Mr. Dickens in the lobby
The Alleyway Theatre’s production of “A Christmas Carol” is like –well, like something out Dickens. It is legend. It is timeless. Dickens wrote it in 1843, a year after his first visit to Buffalo. Neal Radice, the Alleyway Theatre’s artistic director, tried to keep his stage adaptation as faithful to the original as possible. And over the course of 26 years, he hasn’t tinkered much with it.
“People don’t want it to change,” he says.
Once, he tried to “glamour up” the Ghost of Christmas Present with red, glowing eyes. The audience wanted none of that, and the ghost returned the next year as hooded and faceless. Radice was happy to keep it that way.
“It seems many writers adapt Dickens but feel they have to make it their own,” he says. “There are versions of ‘A Christmas Carol’ like ‘Twilight Zone’ episodes, versions where Christmas Day never arrives, other times Scrooge is a magician and does magic tricks –all this stuff. Why do they do that? The carols we sing, no one complains it’s the same old carol.”
The Alleyway production has a genuinely British Scrooge in Radice’s old friend John Smeathers, who flies in to Buffalo for the run. This will be Smeathers’ 11th year in the role.
The troupe makes a point in other ways, too, to surround the production with Victorian atmosphere. A quartet of singers, including Radice, leads carols in the lobby before the production. Actors mingle with the audience after the show, willingly posing for pictures. And Radice, who plays Dickens on stage, holds court, still in character as the author.
Even after presenting the story annually for over a quarter century, Radice still sees its magic. He points out that the worse Scrooge is at the beginning, the more moving his redemption at the end.
“The Dickens material is wonderful, and the story gets at the universal purposes and reasons behind Christmas without focusing purely on religious aspects,” he says.
“It talks about universal purposes and human goals that everyone connect to. Because of that it plays and plays. People like to see it happen again, to go on that trip with Scrooge.”
