presents
The Carol Project
The Globe & Mail
HENRIETTA WALMARK
December 27, 2007 A-Channel, 9 pm
For a genuinely lovely seasonal treat, this is just the thing. Adapted for television from the live stage show that has been playing to sold-out audiences in Edmonton for a decade, this is a musical version of the Dickens holiday classic. A group of Canadian roots and folk musicians got together and wrote original lyrics and music based on specific characters like Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, Jacob Marley and the various ghosts of Christmas to remarkably moving effect. The tunes are eclectic in style and content, from bluesy to funky to Celtic to gospel, yet they all meld into a wonderfully entertaining whole. Two songs are especially memorable. Kenneth Brown's The Men Who Toil, about the miners "who dig the deeps," and Maria Dunn's Tiny Tim song God Bless Us Everyone, with its sweet reminder: "When the world is feeling cold and the sky more grey than blue/ And the snow it seems to lie heavy heartedly on you/ To the counting house of blessings may we often chance to stray/ And in company together spend many's the night and day."
On April 28th, AMPIA
(the Alberta
Motion Picture Industry Association)
awarded the "Rosie" for
Best Musical or Variety Special
to "The Carol Project" - John Armstrong, David Balcon and Tim Folkmann,
Producers
Bellstruck Productions Inc.
DVD available through
