A Christmas Carol (ish)

With a title like “A Christmas Carol (ish)”, uncertainty is already built into our expectations but no-one - not even the cast or writers - could have predicted what would happen when it opened. A calamitous press night saw the show being stopped halfway through the first half and cancelled completely before the second could start due to “software issues”.

This latest effort starring Nick Mohammed's creation Mr Swallow appeared at the Soho Theatre and, even though there have been some changes, arrives in @sohoplace with its plot very much as it was. A decade on appearing in Dracula - The Musical, Mr Swallow now has his own holiday extravaganza thanks to his benefactor and producer Mr Goldsworth (David Elms) who has come into a “pre-emptive” inheritance (his mother is still alive). They are joined by multi-talented entrepreneur and showgirl Rochelle (Ghosts’ Martha Howe-Douglas) and young actor Jonathan (Kieran Hodgson of Two Doors Down) to re-create the classic Dickens story in a very, very loose fashion and with a few twists for good measure.

The first and biggest sees Swallow play a Scrooge-like Santa, a Father Christmas who only sees his role in terms of finances and effort. When the elves played by Goldsworth and Rochelle and the reindeer Rudolf Hess (yes) played by Jonathan ask for Christmas Day off, Santa throws all his many toys out of the metaphorical pram and cancels Christmas itself before heading to bed. He awakes to find Elf Marley (Goldsworth) warning him of the error of his ways. Will Santa redeem himself before it is too late?

Apart from playing Mr Swallow, Mohammed is also well known for his role in football comedy Ted Lasso and A Christmas Carol-ish is very much a show of two halves. The first is a blistering hour of comedy gold that whizzes along like Santa’s sleigh on jet fuel. Mohammed gets to show off his acting, comedy and singing chops to great effect as the camp and vain Swallow who breaks the fourth wall at every opportunity. The plot keeps fairly closely to the original story with Goldsworth returning as both the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present despite Swallow’s hilarious confusion and protestations. There’s slapstick and laughs galore but it is worth bearing in mind that the script is probably a little more adult than the average panto.

What the critics missed out on press night is, though, a very different second half. Out goes even the slightest adherence to the Scrooge story until the very end, in comes a series of barely funny sketches. Swallow pretends to be a maternity nurse who helps a heavily pregnant Jonathan give birth. The gang have a chinwag with an offstage God which has more than a few nods to a similar conversation in the 1991 film Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. Rochelle belts out the long-telegraphed number she’s been dying to sing while Jonathan sings an entirely forgettable ditty about the life of a reindeer. Things only perk up towards the end when, in a dark and dramatic scene out of keeping with anything that has come before, the ghost of Christmas Future appears in the form of Death and Swallow is forced to risk life and limb to save his friends.

Set and costume designer Fly Davis deserves maximum applause for her work here. The generally unambitious outfits are a perfect reflection of Swallow/Santa/Scrooge’s miserly demeanour and are in stark contrast to the cinematic staging full of filing cabinets piled to the rafters which enhances Santa’s declaration that “Christmas is business”. The bureaucratic scenery opens up at different heights, a blessing as there are sometimes issues with the sightlines (some ground-level sight gags like a wandering shark fin are barely visible from the back of the stalls). Richard Howell’s lighting is spry and light and more subtle than Giles Thomas’ sound design which is occasionally too loud and unfocussed. Maybe the press night power cut was a mixed blessing, leaving those who left that evening on a giddy high (even after hanging around for three hours) that just isn’t there by the end.

A Christmas Carol(ish) continues until 31 December

Photo credit: Matt Crockett