Oh “bah, humbug”, it's A Christmas Carol!

For the first time ever in pantomime, the Charles Dickens classic ‘A Christmas Carol' opened to packed audiences at Mullingar Arts Centre last week.The story begins with Scrooge (played by Aidan Ennis), who does a fantastic job with what seemed to be an “untypical” lead character, as Ebenezer is neither wholly good, nor bad, for most of the story. This led to a somewhat unusual audience reaction, who never booed once on the night. But Mr. Ennis managed to personify the miserliness and bitterness of an old man who is not beyond redemption.The comic duo of John Quinn and Paul Doolin never failed to whip the audience into belly rolls of laughter. Both cleaning ladies for Mr Scrooge, Dusty Mantle and Ita Hamper, with their outrageous costumes, coupled with unruly make-up, not to mention their intentional digs at the powers that be, such as the County Council and various politicians provide endless laughter. The audience appreciation of this was clear from the moment they walked on stage to their bows at the end, which received the loudest of cheers from the crowd. The kids enjoyed them too, shouting unabashedly up to the stage, every time they appeared. “Coo-eee!”The addition of a boyband to this year's panto, something that has been done many times in the bigger theatres, was a first for Mullingar Panto Group, and it was hard to know how a band from out of town would fit in. However, Mission 4 made up of Ryan, Kieran, Donal and Marcus, each singing golden oldies for the Christmas Past saga worked nicely, as did their Ghostbusters scene. I'm sure some were wondering however at their own song ‘Can't Stop' spilling into the story, but it did not cause enough upset to get the audience completely lost, and it went down a treat with the females in the audience!There were many enjoyable performances throughout the production, in particular that of a “fairy” called Pixie played unabashedly by Gary Nolan, who stepped up the pace with an energetic rendition of Proud Mary. This was performed in conjunction with the only obvious villain of the piece, the ghost of Jacob Marley, which saw a chained Joe Earley perform on stage.Other standout performances came from Jemma McNamee who played Omnipresence, Katie McCarthy (Miss Jane) for her singing opposite Aaron Purcell (Mr Fred), as well as Niamh O'Shea and Chris Corroon as Emily and Bob Cratchit.The music in this production was thrilling, including such songs as Money (That's What I Want), Everybody Needs Somebody to Lovely, I Believe in Angels, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, Material Girl, and Walking on Sunshine amongst others.The choreography was good for the most part, with a stand out performance from lead dancer Siobhan Murphy who did a spectacular job of a real life “walking, talking living doll”.The Ghost of Christmas Past, while her diction was a little difficult to understand in places, was visually breath-taking as she floated high over the stage, while Santa Claus coming down the chimney was another magical treat for all the little boys and girls. The flying bed however, while good in theory, sounded a little the worse for wear as it was hoisted into the air, with strings on full show, the flying bed scene was not as seamless as it could have been. One of the most enjoyable parts of this year's panto however was the short and clever movie which was shot for the show earlier this year, detailing the chase of Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Future, provided plenty of comedy and horror in equal measure.All in all it was another successful show for Mullingar Panto Group. A Christmas Carol continues until Sunday, December 19.