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- [00:01]
State Farm Representative
Finding ways to be financially savvy is a smart move and knowing you could be saving money for the things you really want, like that dream home or new ride is a great feeling. That's why the State Farm Personal Price Plan can help you save when you choose to bundle home in auto bundling. Just another way to save with the Personal Price Plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state.
- [00:33]
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- [00:41]
Chris Duffy
We all have bad days and sometimes bad weeks and maybe even bad years. But the good news is we don't have to figure out life all alone. I'm comedian Chris Duffy, host of ted's how to Be a Better Human podcast and our show is about the little ways that you can improve your life. Actual practical tips that you can put into place that will make your day to day better. Whether it is setting boundaries at work or rethinking how you clean your house, each episode has conversations with experts who share tips on how to navigate life's ups and downs. Find how to be a better human wherever you're Listening to this.
- [01:16]
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- [01:26]
Mickey Jo
Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my Fear 2 themed YouTube channel. Or hello to those listening on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I'm obsessed with all things theatre. Today we're going to talk All Things Mischief's Christmas Carol Goes Wrong and I'm going to talk about this show for 45 to 90 minutes.
- [01:46]
Well, my apologies for that. I'm not entirely sure what happened at the start there, but clearly something went wrong. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to those of you listening on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. Thank you to my state fiance Erin James for the festive cameo appearance. Today we are indeed talking about Christmas Carol Goes Wrong from the brilliant Mischief Theatre Company, the ingenious hysterical minds behind the play that Goes Wrong, the long running West End and Off Broadway hit, as well as subsequent productions like Peter Pan Goes Wrong, the comedy about a bank robbery, the recent comedy about spies, as well as TV projects including the Goes Wrong show, which is worth mentioning because it's on screen that their version of Christmas Cow Goes Wrong actually first debuted. And this theatrical version is a subsequent adaptation, one which, if you've seen the TV version, actually has some differences now. This production has played a couple of theaters around the country and is currently running over the festive period at the Apollo Theatre in the West End and among their recent breakout projects, exploring new ideas in different formats. This is a brilliant return to classic Mischief Theatre, featuring all your favourite beloved characters from the Cornley Drama Society. And without spoiling the fantastic jokes, I'm going to tell you what I enjoyed so much about this production and why it is essential viewing for anyone who is a fan of Mischief Theatre, which at this point I feel like is most of us. Of course, if you've already seen this production yourself, I would love to know what you thought of it in the comments section down below. And as long as it isn't too spoiler heavy, you can let us know your favorite moment as well. What had you laughing the hardest during Christmas Carol Goes Wrong and for those of you who haven't had the chance to see it, here are my thoughts. So I recall seeing Christmas Carol Goes Wrong on tv. From what I remember, it was one of the earliest forays on onto the screen of Mischief Theatre, who had been cultivating a wider audience with appearances on like the Royal Variety Program alongside their huge stage success with the original play that Goes Wrong, which continues to be a long running hit in the West End, delighting audiences with its brilliant winning formula, delivering not only with the enduringly funny concept of slapstick and hijinks on stage, but also these endearingly silly, utterly committed and completely hapless characters. There are few things to my mind funnier than the thespian types determined that the show must go on in spite of everything utterly descending into chaos around them, especially with so many of them so ill suited to be on stage in the first place. And make no mistake, it takes brilliantly capable and funny actors to play performers this bad. It takes really smart people to write jokes this dumb. And that's what I've always loved about Mischief shows. It's what audiences have always loved about Mischief shows as well. There is also, which I think is important in a lot of the best comedy, a deceptive amount of heart in there as well. And more so in Christmas Carol Goes Wrong than in almost any of the other Mischief Shows that I've seen. Now what's interesting is with a lot of their other recent productions you get such a heavy helping of the title right? In the Play that Goes Wrong, it is entirely what it says on the tin. It is this mousetrap style whodunit murder mystery, this very classic idea of like a play that might be presented on stage. Everything is sort of the understood stereotype, even the types of characters that you meet, the very sort of pretentious director, the very obnoxious actors, the incapable ones, the YG young type who is so excited to be getting laughs that he smiles out to the audience, the long suffering stage management, the apathetic crew members as well. And likewise in most of their subsequent shows, the comedy about a bank robbery delivers you a bank robbery. The comedy about spies is all about all of these spy jokes. Similarly, Peter Pan goes wrong. It's just an evolution of the play that goes wrong with some more advanced ideas building on what they did in the original production. But having the play that they're doing be Peter Pan Christmas Carol goes Wrong, you would assume is then just them doing Christmas Carol and finding all of the humor in that. But it's not. For one thing, the play itself doesn't start until a decent way into the show. Because what we get in this, and I love this so much, is a wider look at the entire process of them putting on the production, the set which is there to begin with. That was almost an accidental Christmas Carol Dickens reference, as in Marley is dead to begin with. I'm not actually sure how to make it better. Show is doomed to begin with. That would be a great tagline for Christmas Carol goes Wrong. But what we start with is actually the auditions for the production of Christmas Carol which they are casting. Chris, as ever the director is seeing all of these increasingly troubling auditions from the incredibly eager members of the society. Sitting alongside him on the audition panel is Annie, who is hugely enthusiastic as we encounter once more a lot of the characters that you may have fallen in love with in earlier Mischief shows, like Robert Grove, who believes himself to be not only better than everyone else, but also much, much louder, as well as Dennis, the puzzling man with the short term memory of a fish and the personality of a different fish, played of course by founding Mischief members and two of the three co writers of this show, Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayer. They co wrote it along with Henry Shields, who originated the role of Chris Bean though isn't playing it in this production. That lofty responsibility instead is being taken on by Daniel Fraser, who is another former Chris from the 10th anniversary cast of the play. That goes wrong with more familiar and new faces joining them. But as I was saying, I love that we run up to the Christmas cal of it all by getting to see more of what they do in the society. We see not only the auditions, but we Also see production meetings during which the stage is proverbially set for a lot of the problems that are going to emerge during the opening night performance, with the tension of this one in particular dialed up even more when they find out that there is going to be a reviewer dispatched an announcement which even before the punchline, got the most fantastic laugh from the show's PR representative who I was sat in proximity to alongside a bunch of the other reviewers that she had coordinated. But needless to say, the egos and anxieties of all of Cornley's personalities were even more heightened than usual, resulting in something of a power struggle between Chris Bean and Robert Grove over who was going to get to play the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. And while we do eventually arrive at them doing Christmas Carol, and that still represents the bulk of the two act show, a lot of the comedy doesn't necessarily arise from jokes around the that concept and things they're pulling out from the Dickens of it all, but instead with jokes being motivated by characters and the dynamics between them. At this point they had written enough shows with this group to be able to find a lot of easy hysterical comedy between all of these huge cartoonish personalities, as well as in traditional mischief style, a lot of things that are foreshadowed and calling back to earlier gags, jokes around mistakes and unfortunate inevitabilities that we are absolutely able to see coming, but are still hilariously funny even though we do with one of example of this being a model box of the set that Chris reveals to them during a production meeting while he is out of the room, they accidentally break it and attempt to replace a few pieces with nearby items, ultimately just chucking things into the box and covering it over. So when he orders them to send it straight to the builders and a message later comes back to inquire about whether it is to be built exactly per the model box. And he confirms that yes, of course it is. We can see what's going to happen. It doesn't mean it's any less funny every time one of those set pieces arrives during the performance. And it's a joke that keeps on delivering. But I have to say, and obviously after they first developed this, they went on to do even more off piece things. And it wasn't always a goes wrong type of a show every single time. And they weren't always playing these characters playing other characters. It is refreshing to see something that switched up the format a little bit and showed us all of the glimpses of things that by this point. I think we were all really eager to see what do their rehearsals and auditions look like if that's the finished product. Not only that, sometimes their offstage characters are actually even more entertaining than the ones that they get to play during the production. That's a big part of why the TV show the Goes Wrong show is so brilliant to watch from one episode to the next, because they're what gives you the sense of continuity also, and this is going to be a tonal pivot that sounds completely ridiculous as I sit here wearing a Santa hat and a Christmas Carol Goes Wrong scarf. But I have considerably little interest at the best of times in seeing a legitimate production of A Christmas Carol. For the longest time I swore that I was going to boycott them entirely while the nation continued to elect conservative governments who didn't seem concern themselves with the issue of starving children, a personal rule which I decided to relax after the last election. But at the time of filming this, it doesn't seem like enough has changed socially or on the world stage. It doesn't seem like we truly are concerned with the poverty of children worldwide. And therefore I do think that Christmas Carol, while it is one of the most produced plays annually in the United Kingdom because so many regional theaters do it simultaneously, is also one of the most ignored. It is one of the most seen, one of the least understood, and while I could talk about this at length, I'm not going to needless to say, A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong is the only type of Christmas carol I have any interest in seeing right now. At which point we're going to get back to the comedy of it all. Let me tell you about these hilarious.
- [10:58]
State Farm Representative
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- [11:30]
Mickey Jo
Performances. Now I give an awful lot of credit to Daniel Fraser, who I thought was brilliant as Chris and utterly recognizable. It is quintessential Chris Bean. It's difficult to be not the originator of that character alongside the others. I think I said when Six the Musical first did a partial replacement cast that it was difficult to be one of the newer Queens alongside one of the originals and it no longer felt like a really cohesive six piece girl group and that that show is always better when they rehearse in an entirely new company who feel like a solid group of their own. I feel like, especially with the core sort of three or four characters who are the more prominent in a Mischief in a Goes Wrong show, at least that the same rule sort of applies and it makes sense either to have the entire original group together in those roles or an entirely new and different one. That being said, I sort of take that back because of how great Daniel Fraser was in this role and the brilliant chemistry of his rivalry with Henry Lewis as Robert, which is always such a great part of the two Henry's working together, Henry Shields and Henry Lewis on stage, the dynamic that they find. It's also really great to see Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayer in those roles. I think Henry Lewis is so singular and so challenging to imitate that attempting to do so is probably a fool's errand. And the extents of self deprecating despair and misfortune that he can portray on stage as he's getting himself into such humiliating positions while still attempting to insist upon himself with this resilient dignity is just so, so funny. Jonathan Sayer as Dennis, so, so brilliant. He plays again, a sort of a miserable quality. They each find, I think, something very funny in something not dark, but just a little bit sad. There was, I think Kathy Najimy once said, there's nothing funny about a successful person doing well. And the comedy of all of these characters in a Goes Wrong show is the dreadful situations that they find themselves in. For Jonathan Sayer, it's just his vocal delivery as he is reciting all of these lines that he's had written down in various places. That's a running gag throughout this show that he is reading off of different set pieces. And of course occasionally he might find the wrong words written somewhere and say something that he isn't supposed to and disrupt the script. I think my favorite Dennis lines were during his audition moments actually when he talks about having researched A Christmas Carol. And it becomes evident very, very quickly that he has watched the Muppets version and just hearing him talk about the frog falling in love with the pig, I think was a joy to everyone in the audience. We also have to talk about another original mischief maker, Nancy Zamit, who I always think is an underrated part of all of these companies. Now she is portraying the role of Annie 1, which she created in a job share with the actor Dumil Sabanda. Also from the 10th anniversary cast of the Play that Goes Wrong. It happens that they've had so many years in the West End and so many different shows that they have so many alumn now to pull on for all of their projects. But I will briefly say we love to see a job share happening in the West End. They are not made available to actors often enough, but I was thrilled to get to see Nancy because she is a favorite and she is so funny. It's great to see the way that Annie evolves from the play that Goes Wrong through Peter Pan into this and the physicality and the excitement that she has on stage and these sort of interpretive dance moments as she is portraying the ghost of Christmas past. And this frenzied, demented ballet dancer energy that she brings to it is astonishing, actually. It's also always a great show when Nancy Zammit is playing a man with some kind of a pompous accent. That's always a great day. And between her and Daniel as Chris, we actually land a really emotional moment by the end of the show. There's this heartwarming undercurrent. As you know, they're all becoming more and more stressed out with each other and they're finding out about little betrayals and resentments that have emerged during the process. But ultimately it's like all of their productions, one which brings them closer together. Greg Tannehill returns as Jonathan. And I love, I love so much that there is written in lore about previous productions because throughout this he struggles to even stand on a chair or climb a ladder or be elevated in any way because he is still struggling with some kind of PTSD after accidents sustained during Peter Pan Goes Wrong that his character had during various mishaps in that production involving flying. And I love that that gets referenced in this an entirely different production. I love that there is continuity and dialogue between these different shows. If you're curious. I think the order in which to watch them is the play that goes Wrong. Peter Pan goes Wrong and then Christmas Carol goes wrong. But he is as ever, a deeply charming force. Matt Cavendish returns as Max, a very frequent mischief maker himself. So endearing, so charming, so funny, multi rolling as all of these different characters in all of the convoluted ways that you might expect. Chris Leesque as Trevor remains, I think, a real underrated gem in the goes Wrong company. Gets some of my biggest laughs, at least in the show, but has what I can only assume is the very satisfying responsibility of playing everything a little bit more low key and Unfazed as everyone around him is experiencing this collective rise in blood press, he is, for the most part, unflappable. Finally, Sasha Frost in the role of Sandra. You may know her as the glamorous leading actress of Cornley, who often gives flirtatious looks out to the audience or the camera, whatever they happen to be doing. An actress who is new to me and quite possibly new to Mischief as well. From what I can tell, I thought she was great. And speaking of taking over these roles from the original cast members, so, so different to Charlie Russell, who created this character, Sasha's version of Sandra is almost completely unrecognizable, but works in its own brilliant comic ways, with a lot of the comedy here coming from the fact that they can't all be objectively dreadful. And she is, by the standard set on stage, a much stronger actor than the rest of them until you really engage with what she's doing, which is so over the top and so inappropriate, and by her own standards utilizes the three major emotions, happy, sad and hungry. She is also particularly eager for a mention in the review, which gets just the most delightful, charming punchline by the end of the show. In any case, they all do a terrific job playing their cornly characters, and a terrific job of doing a terrible job playing the characters that those characters play within. Christmas Carol Goes Wrong needless to say, if you have any love for these Goes Wrong shows, this one I think is essential. It's a real sort of ribbon on top of everything that they've done so far, which is a tribute to Henry, Henry and Jonathan, who have written it, but also Matt DeCarlo, frequent Mischief collaborator, who has directed this production at a brilliant pace with just enough heart and humor in balance. The visual jokes and the puns and the punchlines stack in that brilliant way until we arrive at this crescendo of comedy that leaves us just hysterically laughing. The set here, designed by Libby Todd, is a particular component of the comedy this time around, and more involved than the likes of the play that Goes wrong, as we have different set P coming on, of course, as a consequence of everything that went wrong with the model box earlier on in the show. And so to see these huge versions, there's so many great jokes that come from that. And to tell you specifically about some of my favorite punchlines, if you're not going to have a chance to see this and want to experience it vicariously through my description, though, I won't do as good a job of making you laugh as the show would let me tell you with many spoilers what made me laugh the most in the this.
- [19:33]
State Farm Representative
Finding ways to be financially savvy is a smart move and knowing you could be saving money for the things you really want, like that dream home or new ride is a great feeling. That's why the State Farm Personal Price Plan can help you save when you choose to bundle home and auto bundling. Just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state.
- [20:12]
Mickey Jo
So to repeat once again, so nobody makes the mistake, there are going to be spoilers in this section. I'm going to tell you about funny things that happen and punchlines if you don't want to know. If you're going to get the chance to go see it for yourself, skip this. Come back to me when you have. But I want to talk about some of the things that happened and my favorite joke this is not the most outrageous thing that happens. It's not the biggest laugh in the theatre, but I love when a rule arises and then gets broken. And something that's been so brilliantly and smartly established throughout the goes wrong shows is the notion that even if something goes horribly wrong, they will still commit to it. It's why in the play that goes wrong, they keep pouring themselves drinks of it's not like a clean. It's white spirit, that's what it is. The onstage drink has been replaced with white spirit and they gather that pretty quickly. But when the script calls for them repeatedly to take a drink from it, they still do because they are such dedicated, committed actors. It's this bizarre show must go on mentality that they are striving for the entire time in spite of their own health and, you know, better judgment, which evidently they don't seem to have. But that's sort of a steadfast rule within these shows. And Chris, who wants to take all of this as seriously as possible and who is committed to it being a serious and legitimate piece of theatre, will when the letters fall from I think it's St. Barnaby's graveyard. Oh no, the other way around. The graveyard of St. Barnaby. That would make more sense. When enough letters fall down that it just says gay bar, he in the script looks up at it and says here, in this gay bar. And he does with such an expression on his face. But he says it regardless. And so when you have a joke earlier on, when that gets contravened, it's a surprise. And it's really funny money when they break that rule. And this is what happened when Nancy Zamit, in a scene in Ebenezer Scrooge's office after one of the set pieces that was meant to be, I guess like a filing cabinet or a cupboard of some sort has been replaced by a giant box of Maltesers. Because that got placed in the set model box that they broke. And the door is open to reveal these giant Maltesers that rolled out all across the stage and they shut Henry Lewis inside of it, holding on to all of these Maltesers. When Nancy is left holding a couple of those rather than the coins, I think that she's meant to give to the charity collector who is on their way out, she says, instead of like, take a couple farthings with you or whatever, she says and have a couple of Maltesers, which that was the joke that made me laugh the most in the entire thing, which is utterly silly. But so is Christmas Carol Goes Wrong. Probably the biggest laughs that the show got arose from the same concepts of the result of that breaking of the model box. There's so much great stuff, stuff that came out of that simple idea. There's this horrifying small childhood puppet that Chris Bean brings in and suggests could be Tiny Tim. They throw it into the box. And so when Tiny Tim appears later on stage and none of this stands up to scrutiny because, like, what were they planning on happening during rehearsals? Why is this a surprise? But when Tiny Tim appears, it's a giant version of this puppet that is the height of the stage and speaks with this booming, terrifying voice. And so when Bob Cratchit and his wife are welcoming Tiny Tim to Christmas dinner and asking if he wants any, and he's replying, feed me like he's Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors. And Mrs. Cratchit is reluctant to. And Jonathan, as Dennis says, just give it what it wants. It's so ridiculous. He tries to throw a Malteser into its gaping mouth. We actually had, if possible, I think A Christmas Carol goes wrong. Going wrong at our performance because Chris as Trevor has to help them out by playing a couple of the other roles, including the Ghost of Christmas yet to Come, which he is eager to play as Scottish, in spite of the fact that it is a non speaking role. And I think he's always meant to hit his head on the graveyard sign to some extent, but it's not meant to break the head and make it as wobbly as it became. So for a good few moments on stage, he was just walking around in this puppet costume with the head going every which way, unable to control the thing, which I assume may happen to some extent in every performance, but we did hear subsequently wasn't meant to go quite that wrong. And you know what? You've got to give a huge amount of credit to the IRL stage management team. Stage manage for this production. Jeffrey Field, company stage manager, Sue Volens, Elspeth Watt, deputy stage manager. Many more involved in the production team as well, because to make Going Wrong go correctly every single night takes an extraordinary amount of backstage dexterity. Roberto Suares is the costume designer for this production, the highlight of which is this Christmas Present box that Henry Lewis finds himself trapped inside of of when he arrives as the Ghost of Christmas Present in what was clearly, clearly an epic misunderstanding with him not being able to poke his head through or breathe particularly well, but one which he can free his legs from in this pair of tights. So he just becomes this walking giant Christmas present with legs. It looks so ridiculous. And to hear his voice emerging from it as he's nearly walking off the stage and walking into all of these different pieces, pieces of scenery and getting struck in the testicles by a table, it's just good. It's all great. It's all, it's all just classic mischief. Goes Wrong fodder. If you've loved their previous shows, you'll love this. That's all I need to say. And by this point, the Goes Wrong concept is a formula that works. They've got it down to a careful science. Between the visual comedy, the puns, the foreshadowing in the script, the callbacks, the interpersonal dynamics between the characters that I think have never been better than they are in this version of the show, and even the late stage revelations of sentimentality. It's always great. A Goes Wrong show is always going to be enjoyable on stage. The comedy gets a little bit repetitive within the production, but also between the various Goes Wrong shows. If you've seen the play that goes wrong recently, but if it also aligns particularly closely with your own brand of humor, then you're gonna love this. And ch you've been to see it already, if you have, I would love to know what you thought, what your favourite joke was in the comments section down below. And if you haven't had the chance yet, or won't necessarily, I hope that you've enjoyed listening to this. Regardless. There has been a televised version of Christmas Carol Goes Wrong as well as a couple of seasons of the Goes Wrong Show. If you haven't checked them out, I encourage you to do so. These guys are hilarious. Go and watch them. And depending on when you are seeing this, I hope that you have or have had a lovely and relaxing festive period. Whatever that means for you and your nearest and dearest.
- [26:48]
Thank you so much for listening to this review. If you enjoyed don't forget to subscribe or follow along on podcast platforms. In the meantime, I hope you're staying safe and that you have a stagey day.
- [27:02]
For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.
- [27:15]
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- [27:47]
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- [27:54]
Chris Duffy
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- [28:02]
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- [28:04]
State Farm Representative
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- [28:06]
Greetings Adventurers Fan
The thing I love most about Greetings Adventurers is the interactive community. I've been listening for 10 years and now I'm a sophomore in college. The only podcast I've ever listened to for that long. Like there's nothing better.
- [28:19]
Mickey Jo
There's no limit on what might happen.
- [28:21]
Greetings Adventurers Fan
So just be prepared. Top tier Kali, right here. The best representation of sitting around with a group of idiots playing D and D. And it's not something you're just watching, it's something that you're experiencing.
- [28:34]
Chris Duffy
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- [28:37]
Greetings Adventurers Fan
Can't wait to see the next episode.
- [28:41]
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