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ENTERTAINMENT
5th Avenue Theatre presents holiday classic
The 5th Avenue Theatre Company will present “A Christmas Carol” beginning Friday at the Jean Carlo Stephenson Auditorium in Huntington City Hall.
Purchase this photoHUNTINGTON -- Director Mary Smirl knows Charles Dickens is probably rolling over in his grave hearing his classic, "A Christmas Carol," Broadway brushed with dance and songs.
But Smirl doesn't so much care -- because she loves the classic story stage-stuffed and seasoned with song.
For the second season, 5th Avenue Theatre Company presents "A Christmas Carol," the musical co-written by Alan Menken, who's written music for such movies as the new movie, "Enchanted," as well as "Beauty and the Beast," and "Little Shop of Horrors."
Packed with a cast of more than 60 actors including such local theater veterans as Clint McElroy as Scrooge, "A Christmas Carol" takes the stage at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Jean Carlo Stephenson Auditorium at Huntington City Hall.
A children's pre-show is at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday.
"A Christmas Carol" also runs Friday through Sunday next weekend.
Tickets are $10 and $8 for children under 12.
Tickets will be sold at the door or in advance at (304) 696-5522.
"In the original, the story is beautiful and it's a good play but it is very dry," Smirl said. "It was pretty much this one man on stage the whole time. Alan Menken puts in these huge sweeping songs that get you up and moving."
That kinetic energy of such songs as "Gather and Sing," during which the cast just spills out onto the stage, is coupled with the timeless lessons passed down in the original -- that family and people should always be more important than a love of money and power.
Smirl said songs such as "There is a Place Called Home" really help tell this redemption tale.
"The lyrics are just beautiful," Smirl said. "You can really come full circle with Scrooge and the music brings such emotion anyway. It's really about man's compassion for those with less. It's a beautiful story and the message is enduring but the music makes it better."
The production is lucky to have a rock-solid cast that Smirl didn't have to go far to find.
"We have everybody back that we had last year," Smirl said. "It's mixed up a bit. Thankfully, we have no life and just live for theater. All the well-adjusted normal people fill in the gaps."
Smirl is, of course, referring to a good number of local theater veterans such as McElroy, her husband, Tommy Smirl, Mary Olson, Jim Lamp, and so many others who were in the play last year.
And like Huntington Outdoor Theatre in summer, 5th Avenue has many families involved.
"It's great because we probably don't have one kid in the show that doesn't have a parent involved," Smirl said. "This show more than any other show has a lot of families. It is kind of crazy when families walk across the stage because some of them are their real-life families."
The children's pre-show is new this year.
"We really didn't do a First Stage show to serve the little guys so this is a wonderful outlet for those kids that didn't get to do a show," Smirl said. "It's a nice introduction to theater and gives the little ones a taste of theater without the huge time commitment of being in the big one."
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