Well, there's a first for everything. In two decades of reviewing this was the first time I've seen a show end early. What should have been a sparkling opening night for Nick Mohammed's distinctly idiosyncratic take on a Dickens classic came to an abrupt conclusion when a software issue could not be resolved.
This was a shame because after a delayed start things were going so well. Before Mohammed became a football sitcom star as Nate in Ted Lasso he was known best for his alter ego Mr Swallow, the socially awkward squeaky-voiced wannabe who fronts this Yuletide tale. To borrow a Lasso-worthy saying, this was a game of two halves without the second half.
Mohammed/Swallow plays Scrooge, but due to "rights issues" becomes Santa in this song-and-dance version. He starts off being bah humbug beastly to his elves, played by David Elms, Kieran Hodgson and Ghosts star Martha Howe-Douglas, but after being visited by past, present and future spooks of the Dickensian variety he is transformed. At which point the curtain came down and didn't rise again...
I saw a previous version of this show at the Soho Theatre which was shambolic and not always in a good way. This slicker, souped-up production with the same director, Matt Peover, struck a better balance between silliness and sophistication. There are quickfire gags, in-jokes, visual tricks, even acrobatics. And a set, by Fly Davis, which is a workshop full of drawers and cubby holes that also boasts some surprises.
The songs range from folky to ballads, from jokey to jaunty, lyrics by Mohammed, music by Oliver Birch. The skilful supporting cast wryly subvert their subsidiary roles, with Hodgson, for example, who would make a passable David Tennant stunt double, hamming it up as a red-nosed reindeer.
And so defeat was snatched from the jaws of a glorious victory. I once heard rumours of a critic – no longer in the critiquing game – who had a habit of leaving in the interval. He concluded that a dud would not improve in the second half and he could scent a smash before the break. I could already smell a hit here, but I would have had the courtesy of staying to the final bow if it had continued.
As I was finishing this review an email pinged in from the publicists including a statement from the theatre that they "are devastated that the press night for A Christmas Carol (ish) could not be completed tonight due to technical difficulties." Not elf and safety problems as some wag quipped. Tonight's performance has been cancelled. Ticket holders for Thursday or Friday will be contacted by the box office.
At the end the cast came on to a standing ovation and Mohammed, understandably said that he was "gutted." You'd have to be a true Scrooge not to root for him.
@sohoplace, until December 31 (not tonight). Tickets and information here: sohoplace.org/whats-on
