Here is Scrooge and his crew as we have not seen them before: airlifted to the Appalachian mountains of the 1930s, stuffed into hand-knitted sweaters and assembled for hoedowns as they sing Dolly Parton’s festive songs. This twist on Charles Dickens’ Christmas staple is nothing if not novel. But sickly sweet and simply not spooky enough, it is also one just for Parton’s diehard following.
With Parton writing the music and lyrics, the songs and the band do not disappoint. There are infectious bluegrass numbers like Smoky Mountain Christmas, and beautiful, meditative ones like Appalachian Snowfall. Overtly Christian lyrics invoke Jesus and there is a church choir sound, although most simply sound like “Dolly”, especially in the mouth of Vicki Lee Taylor who plays various characters including Mrs Cratchit and sings gloriously (as do the entire ensemble).
Photograph: Manuel Harlan
But the show’s all-American schmaltz brings a flatness and there is a decidedly sleepy book by David H Bell, which comes with far-fetched Tennessee idioms in which characters are “angrier than a wet rooster” and “madder than a mule chewing a bumblebee”.
We plod through the story (adapted by Bell, Paul T Couch and Curt Wollan), taking in scenes that telegraph prohibition and Depression-era poverty but put a saccharine spin on it all. Even Scrooge (Robert Bathurst), a gruff southerner who clearly has a soft spot for Tiny Tim right from the start, seems too benign.
In this all-inclusive storybook community, the realities of segregation are not so much negotiated as wiped clean with colour-blind casting. The spirit of Christmas Past is a happy hillbilly and the young Scrooge’s sweetheart wears braids.
The show’s wholesomeness drains the story of its supernatural frights too – spookiness cannot simply be conjured by a flash of jagged light before the entry of the Christmas spirits, two of whom are jarringly friendly. At least the third spirit is inspired and performed by Corey Wickens, who plays a fiddle and almost steals the show.
If you come for Parton’s songs, you will most likely enjoy this show and the live band, whose instruments include the banjo, mandolin and at one point the spoons. If only there were more music, less book.
At the Southbank Centre, London, until 8 January
