Dan Gallant Review

By Daniel Gallant
Director of Theater Programming, Makor/Steinhardt Center, NYC           
January 9, 2007




Sandra Nordgren’s production of A Christmas Carol gracefully straddles the line between classical theater and contemporary, interactive performance.

The production is truly accessible for audiences of all ages and effective in communicating both the joys of compassion and the injurious effects that impoverishment has on all members of society.
 
Nordgren’s Scrooge is a riveting, multilayered creation. His angst at revisiting a youthful conflict between romance and money is palpable, and his reluctance to act on non-financial impulses conceals a poignant sense of loss and melancholy.

We feel for this Scrooge as he struggles under the ghosts’ intense tutelage, and because of Dan Leeds' nuanced portrayal of Scrooge (alternately gripping and sympathetic), we are particularly glad to witness his transformation from pariah to philanthropist.
 
Tiny Tim and the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present artfully guide the audience through what in other productions can come across as tedious narrative territory.

By sometimes freezing the action of the play and doing away with the fourth wall, and by using child-friendly banter to avoid clichéd or impersonal moments, Nordgren brings both warmth and immediacy to this oft-told tale.

Her tasteful use of a cappella carols to separate scenes punctuates this memorable and engaging production.
 
I very much enjoyed A Christmas Carol, and Nordgren's version evoked more empathy for the characters and more of a sense of personal connection than I've felt with other incarnations of this tale.

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