It's Scrooge with hints of Annie and Oliver

By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN, Arts and Entertainment
Published November 16, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Mike Carlson] Marc Yacht plays the mean, nasty boss Ebenezer Scrooge in his Richey Suncoast Theatre debut.

If you've seen the annual Christmas shows at Richey Suncoast Theatre lately, you know they're something out of the ordinary. First timer? You may leave wondering what you just saw.

A Pasco Christmas 2007 is not your father's holiday show. The only tradition is that it will be a completely new, different and enjoyable experience for those who go in with an open attitude.

There will be holiday spirit and fun. Charlie Skelton, who writes the show every year, makes sure of that, filling the stage with zany characters and upbeat and inspiring songs, including six new ones he and musician Marvin Lovett have written for this year's show.

The cast will be huge. Director Marie Skelton says that anyone who auditions was put in the show or assigned to the crew. This year, that's 65 people.

"This may be the one chance that all family members get to work in a show together," Mrs. Skelton reasons. Sort of "a family that's in a play together, stays together."

This year is an all-new story, Scrooge Revisited, obliquely based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol mixed with Broadway's Annie and Oliver! with dollops of pop singers, politicians, New York City, Texas and New Port Richey history tossed in for good measure.

The mean, nasty boss Ebenezer Scrooge (Marc Yacht in his Richey Suncoast debut) has been transported from London to New York, where he rules over a humble bookkeeper, Bob Cratchit (Rich Aront, Mayor Shinn in The Music Man), and five young clerks Scrooge took from an orphanage because he could pay them a slave wage.

Since he doesn't know the orphans' parentage, he named them all Clerk, as in Kristy Clerk (Kristy Carlson), Kelly Clerk (Kelly Lewis), Tate Clerk (Tate Quinones) and Caitlin Clerk (Caitlin Ramirez).

As in the familiar Christmas Carol, Scrooge is visited by three spirits on Christmas night, Spirit 1 (Ralph Gillingham), Spirit 2 (Bob Marcela) and Spirit 3 (John Masterson and Chip Wichmanowski).

Spirit 3 also happens to be the inventive twins, both named Nealious Diamondowski so their mom would have to call only one name to get the boys to dinner.

There's the do-gooder Shankman and Peabody families, a Tiny Tina (Tiffani Cruz), Jacob Marley Jr. and Jacob Marley Sr. (Mark Lewis) and an unexpected Ghost of Mrs. Scrooge (Briana Waldorf).

"It starts in New York and tells how New Port Richey got started," Skelton said. "And then some very important people came out of Texas to be here."

The show has some digs at politicians, some imaginative history lessons, and a nice portion of dancing and singing.

"This show wraps up a lot of loose ends" from previous shows and about New Port Richey's past, Skelton said.

The show concludes with an unusual and unexpected, but actually appropriate song for the holidays.

If you go

'A Pasco Christmas 2007 - Scrooge Revisited'

Where: Richey Suncoast Theatre, 6237 Grand Blvd., New Port Richey

When: Thursday and weekends through Dec. 2. Shows are at 8 p.m., except Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets: $15, reserved seating. Box office is open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and an hour before each show. Call (727) 842-6777.

[Last modified November 16, 2007, 06:53:32]