Before discussing it, just a few words about the cast, which consisted of members of the Dublin Theatre, as per the album cover.
The most prominent name is Irish actress Siobhan McKenna, who portrays the three Christmas spirits and gets her picture on the cover!
I'm reasonably familiar with her, as she was in a few movies, most notably 1965's "Dr. Zhivago" and 1961's "King of Kings," in which she played Mary. She was mainly a stage actress, however, and well-known as such in 1958.
I think she does a good job on the album, but isn't really used that much.
Scrooge is played by Anew McMaster, who was almost exclusively a stage actor, appearing in only one small, un-billed part in one movie, 1960's "Sword of Sherwood Forest," a fun flick featuring Richard Greene's Robin Hood vs. Peter Cushing's Sheriff of Nottingham!
I do think McMaster is a slight bit hammy as Scrooge, perhaps a result of his normally working on the stage, but he does the heavy lifting here and is effective.
I understand that although he styled himself as Irish native, he was actually born in England with the first name of Andrew!
The only other actor from the album that I recognize is Milo O'Shea, who plays old Joe. He wasn't too well-known in 1958, but had a long career lasting into the 2000s in which he popped up in a lot of movies as well as TV dramas and sitcoms.
He had a particularly interesting year in 1968 with featured roles in the movies "Romeo and Juliet" and "Barbarella" (he was Durand-Durand)!
I think its a good cast that performs well!
Next: What kind of a script did that cast get to perform?
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