A Musical Christmas Carol

We’ve all seen the traditional performance of the play A Christmas Carol – bad English accents, tired acting, and ragtag costumes used year after year. This was not so with Carnation City Players staging of the musical version with music by Alan Menken.

I had the privilege of playing in the pit ensemble – an ensemble, mind you, not an orchestra. You see, even if we wanted to, we could only fit about 7 people maximum in the small pit space off to the side of the large stage. Another reason for the small group of musicians – there are no mics used on the cast. Our group this time included piano, flute, viola, electric bass, and percussion – and all with no conductor. That alone is quite a challenge in live theatre!

After the initial run-through to get tempos and cuts, the race was on to figure out all the vocal cues to know when to play. Head bobs from the pianist cued us in – well, most of the time – and we were off to the races. The piccolo was too aggressive, so we stuck with just the flute. And if it weren’t for sticky notes, I never would have found my way through all the cuts.

So, the performance is over and I have my evenings back, more or less. So, Civil War, the Musical anyone?

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