While listening to Irene Wicker's quick run-through of "A Christmas Carol," I was trying to think of what it reminded me of. Then it hit me - Patrick Stewart's one-man version of the story!
That may seem like an odd connection, but both of these performers narrate the story as if they're reading it to you, while using different voices for the various characters. Once the voice for each character is established, they don't need to say "...said Scrooge" or something similar, since we now who did the speaking based on the voice.
I wouldn't imagine that Patrick Stewart used Ireene Wicker's record as a point of reference (if he ever heard it at all) but it's an interesting comp and 40-odd years apart!
The biggest difference, of course, is that Ms. Wicker was telling the story for 1949 children and had just over three minutes in which to do so. Just two sides of a seven-inch record spinning around at a very fast 78 rpm.
Patrick Stewart recorded his version (presumably for all ages) in 1991, well into the CD era, and got over 100 minutes, so not a fair fight!
Be that as it may, Patrick Stewart does an awesome job here. As the cover of the CD notes, he "performs" the story. His reading of the text itself with his "real" voice is very engaging and he gives entertaining voices to the various characters. He seems like he's having a good time and it's contagious.
He had apparently been performing this show for a while before making this recording and his performance here is certainly well-honed. He performed the show on Broadway the same year as this recording and wound up with a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person show!
Ireene Wicker aside, the original comparison for Patrick Stewart's show would be Charles Dickens's own public readings of "A Christmas Carol" back in the day. Dickens apparently would use different voices for the various characters too. Seeing one of those readings will be a must when time travel is invented!
I had wondered if Stewart was using that public reading adaptation for his show, but checking that text quickly shows that's not the case. It seems the original book itself is the source.
This recorded version is extremely faithful, but was anything added or omitted?
We shall see...
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