St. Louis Shakespeare Festival brings all the fun and festivity of the holiday season to the National Blues Museum with a music-infused show suitable for all ages. The Q Brothers Christmas Carol pulls the characters, story and language from A Christmas Carol to create an incredibly entertaining and refreshed version, infused with the history of hip hop and the spirit of the Charles Dickens classic.
A single street sign, indicating our location as the intersection between Hip Hop and Dickens, and a cutout silhouette of the city are the sole set pieces in a room festooned with festive holiday lights and decorations. DJ Stank sets the mood for a holiday party with a pre-show mix that leans heavily into popular holiday songs. The DJ accompanies the show, providing in-the-moment reactions that mirror the audience’s while staying mostly in the DJ booth at the side of the stage.
Three performers slowly spill in, like kids coming together to play outside on a snow day; their banter is lively, and their spirits and energy are high and infectious. Suddenly, grouchy old Ebenezer Scrooge bursts in to break up their party. A man in love with money and greed, he berates his employee Bob Cratchit and spurns and dismisses charity workers before heading home (with his bag of cash held tightly at his side) on Christmas Eve. Considering the night almost as useless as the following day, he prepares himself for bed, but the ghost of his former partner Jacob Marley interrupts his sleep. As in the original, Marley warns Scrooge that he’s on a path toward despair and informs his friend that three ghosts will visit him throughout the night to try to save Scrooge from his miserable fate.
The story is familiar, and the use of reggae and hip hop music as an interpretative device works fantastically well. The clever script also incorporates multiple pop-culture and movie references that add humor. You don’t need to be knowledgeable in Christmas trivia or hip-hop culture to enjoy the show; getting a reference is just a bonus gift in the quick-moving one act show. Victor Musoni, Maya Vinice Prentiss and Mo Shipley are a talented, flexible and fabulous ensemble, portraying multiple roles and effortlessly using reggae and hip-hop styles from multiple generations. The stylistic choices and musical icons are crisply and definitively referenced, and see if you can catch Tiny Tim’s nod to our very own Nelly. Mel Bady is infectious and easily rouses the crowd as DJ Stank, and Garrett Young is near perfection as the comic curmudgeon who finally finds his heart and his groove. The choreography has an organic feel that’s grounded in hip hop, with a little jam band, hip shaking thrown in for good measure. The result is a feel-good show with all the holiday trimmings.
Some stories are built on near universal truths that are so essentially immutable they resonate hundreds, even thousands, of years beyond their initial telling. Though their customs may be unfamiliar, the characters and their motivations are instantly recognizable and easy to place in more contemporary settings. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one of those tales and a perennial favorite during the holiday season. The Q Brothers Christmas Carol gives the story an updated setting and soundtrack to deliver a fun holiday show for the whole family that may have you dancing in the aisles by the final bow.
Written by the Q Brothers Collective, based on Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol.” Directed by Q Brothers Collective. Presented by St. Louis Shakespeare Festival at the National Blues Museum (615 Washington Avenue, 314-925-0016, nationalbluesmuseum.org) through Saturday, December 23. Showtimes vary, and tickets are $20 to $55.
Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters. Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
