A Christmas Carol

At the Rialto starting December 2nd

By: Dan Laxer
Nov 12, 2010 - 14:56
See all articles by Dan L. »

Every holiday season I look forward to watching Scrooge on TV. The 1951 film version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is my favourite. It's the performances of Alistair Simm, and Kathleen Harrison (Mrs. Dilber).

But a special stage version of A Christmas Carol is coming to a very special Montreal stage.

Local theatre producer Barry O'Connell was looking for a theatre at the same time that Rialto Theatre owner Ezio Carosielli was looking for a show to put on. O'Connell, who is now the Projects Coordinator for the Rialto, met Carosielli and proposed A Christmas Carol. “He lit up like a Christmas tree,” says O'Connell, “pardon the pun.”

This will be a milestone for Carosielli and for the Rialto; A Christmas Carol will be the theatre's first in-house production since its reopening this past Spring.

Modelled after the Paris Opera House, the Rialto opened in 1924. The marquee was added out front 2 decades later. But the theatre's recent history has been anything but glorious, and its fate hung in the balance.

As a McGill law student, Carosielli rode past the theatre everyday on the bus, and dreamed of one day owning it. That dream is now a reality, and now he and his wife are working hard to restore the Rialto to its former glory, and reinstate it as a theatre serving the community. Carosielli agreed to house this production, provided it met 3 conditions. In fact, Carosielli would want all productions to meet the same requirements: it has to be affordable, so members of the community can come and see it, it has to give back to the community, and it has to be a fantastic show.

This production has a cast of 22 Montreal actors, including Frayne McCarthy as Ebeneezer Scrooge. Fresh off a production of Hope in Chaos (written up here last week), Frayne first made his mark in Montreal as Marius, in both French and English, in the Montreal production of Les Miserables.

On top of that, the show will be narrated, on different nights, by 3 local television celebrities: reporters Tarah Schwartz and Caroline Van Vlaardingen, and weather girl Lori Graham, all of CTV Montreal.

This production of A Christmas Carol will be be peppered with, well, Christmas carols, traditional tunes, like Silent Night, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Good King Wenceslas, and 11 others. O'Connell points out that they won't be done as cheesy show tunes, where the characters spontaneously burst out into song. Rather, they'll be incorporated into the story where they make sense...

As far as giving back to the community is concerned, since the play will run for 3 subsequent weekends, each will be set aside all proceeds for the Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation, Sun Youth, and the Mile End Community Mission.

The Rialto Theatre's A Christmas Carol opens Thursday, December 2, and runs each weekend until the 19th.