- OTHER MEDIA
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- There are Christmas Carol's and then there are Christmas Carol's. There
are the no-expenses spared varieties with clever rigging and fabulous costumes
and larger-than-life characterizations of those classic Christmastide archetypes—the
lonely bastard, the beatific poor man, the lovable child. There are the
more modest productions, community theatre affairs, with A-for-effort,
fun-for-the-whole-family, casual appeal. And then there's the Cora Values
treatment, which throws the whole silly notion of family togetherness out
the window and instead throws a party for the orphans of the holiday season—the
bah-humbuggers and true unbelievers. In this rock-bottom budget "illiterary
adaptation" of Dickens' classic in "the most authentic form we
know how" a ragtag crew from the Gas 'N' Gulp in Rectal, Texas, bumble
through a singular interpretation of the tale, punctuated by original comic
songs penned by Cora (Sean Owens) and Emmett Cornpike (Don Seaver). Sticklers
for textual authenticity or political correctness may cringe at the chorus
of the solo song by Tiny Tim (Amanda Ortmayer), "This Won't Be Another
Lame Holiday," but Dickens wrote a few head-scratching lines himself.
Take this description of Marley's face appearing in Scrooge's doorknocker:
"It had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar."
"Charles Dickens' immortal text" Cora remarks dryly. You said
it sister.
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