With all the holiday shows floating around Milwaukee this season, the funniest has got to be Scrooge in Rouge, a send-up of the Dickens tale set in a Victorian music hall. Scrooge is the creation of a couple of guys from Atlanta, who started performing it a few years ago in a small Atlanta theater. Luckily, the plucky In Tandem theater company caught wind of this show and the rest is history. This is the show's second annual appearance and, judging from early reports, is probably going to be another sell-out.
As its title suggests, this Scrooge is very different from the elaborate Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, staged each year by the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. The In Tandem version has only three actors the result of massive food poisoning that has sidelined the rest of the 23-member cast. The three remaining cast members must fill all of the roles, mixing genders as well as characters. For instance, the not-too-nice Vesta, played by Marcella Kearns, appears throughout as Scrooge. She also appears as a few other characters, too, but not nearly as many as Matt Daniels as the simpering ingénue, Lottie, or the balding Chris Flieller, as Charlie. (Flieller is In Tandem's artistic director.)
Although all the actors have moments to shine throughout Scrooge in Rouge, it is clearly Matt Daniels who steals the show. Imagine a Green Bay Packers-sized guy attempting to portray a winsome young girl in a bonnet and frilly dress, and you get the idea. Daniels keeps up this hysterical scenario for most of the show, although he does get to play a few men as well. (It's a wonder that his falsetto voice doesn't give out.)
Another of Daniels' stellar characters is a gay Ghost of Christmas Present. (He tells Scrooge: "I'm going to take you to a place you've been before, which clearly hasn't been a good hair dresser's".).
As for Chris Flieller, he makes such a pathetic Marley's ghost that Kearns (as Scrooge) can barely control her laughter. The (intentionally pathetic) costume leads to uproarious laughter from the audience, too. Pee-Wee Herman couldn't have done a better job with this part.
The show also contains dozens of brief songs and production numbers. It would be worth seeing the show again just to pay more attention to the catchy lyrics. And let's not forget a couple of "extra" numbers thrown in for good measure (one of them, about Brits relaxing at the seaside, is a side-splitter that opens Act II. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Dickens story but at this point, who cares.). This PG-rated show has more than a few bawdy jokes, a few groaners and absurd mannerisms of all sorts.
Amazingly, the cast gets through the entire show, from the early scenes where Scrooge admonishes his clerk, Bob Cratchit, not to come in late the day after Christmas, to Scrooge's transformation at the end. Some of the more delicious bits include "Fweddie," Scrooge's idiotic nephew (played by Flieler), Matt Daniels as a pregnant Mrs. Cratchit (who breastfeeds a Muppet doll throughout this scene), and Kearns as the foul-mouthed Scrooge. When the inevitable happens (both Daniels and Flieller appear onstage as the same character), they team up as a sister act to play Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge's housekeeper.
There's also an onstage music director, played by David Bonofiglio, who resists all entreaties to join the cast ("it's against union rules," he sniffs). As a result, the actors are forced to recruit an audience member. The brief bit is so cleverly done that it becomes one of the show's finest moments (sorry, won't spoil the surprise).
In all, this refreshing take on an old tale turns out to be a winner. It may not tweak one's heartstrings as the conventional version does, but it certainly gives one's funny bone a work out.
