Screenwriter and songwriter
Leslie Bricusse
's 1970 movie
Scrooge
, a musical adaptation of
Charles Dickens
'
A Christmas Carol
, was not particularly well received at the time of its release, but, like many holiday entertainments, managed to maintain perennial interest, and more than two decades later,
Bricusse
further adapted it to the stage, writing an additional handful of songs in the process. As such, the theater version of
is a more formidable musical work, and, in its initial 1992 production, which opened in Birmingham, England, but failed to move to the West End, it boasted much improved casting. The film had starred non-singer
Albert Finney
in the title role, but the stage version marked
's reunion with his old partner
Anthony Newley
, with whom he had written the internationally successful
musicals
Stop the World -- I Want to Get Off
and
The Roar of the Greasepaint -- The Smell of the Crowd
.
Newley
did not collaborate with
on the book or songs for
, but he certainly knew his way around
's material. All of this should have boded well, and it can be said that the original Birmingham cast album of
is an improvement over the 1970 movie
soundtrack
album; it is more complete and better sung. That said, it still isn't one of
's more memorable scores. The storyline is the familiar one of
Ebenezer Scrooge
proclaiming, "Bah, humbug!" during the Christmas season until his attitude is changed by a series of ghosts, and that dictates some very predictable songs such as
's
"I Hate Christmas"
(called
"I Hate People"
in the movie), contrasted with the more positive sentiments expressed by the ghosts, notably
Jon Pertwee
Marley
in
"Make the Most of This World"
"See the Phantoms"
in the movie), and
"I Like Life,"
sung by
the Ghost of Christmas Present
(
Stratford Johns
). And there is a suitably uplifting conversion number for
at the end called
"I'll Begin Again."
But rarely does
go beyond the obvious, one exception being the new patter song
"The Minister's Cat,"
a sort of party game of a song that has no particular connection to the story, but certain enlivens it.
, who was
's age, past 60, sounds vocally diminished, but he may be performing in character; the surrounding cast is considerably more energetic. The real drawback to
isn't in the performances, it's in the work itself.
may have been aiming for a cross between
Lionel Bart
Dickens
adaptation
Oliver!
and his own earlier shows, but the result is not distinctive. ~ William Ruhlmann