I think that's an honest review. I'm OK with the tree, though if it works correctly and includes the entire square as it was designed to. I would like it to include the entire square and perhaps even encourage interaction in some way. My 11-year-old daughter still dances like no one is watching. She cares more about seeing the tree than anything else in the park. Anything to make it more gooder will certainly be welcome.
You are the first to mention the change in the spirits for the Dickens show. I have recently discovered that reversal.
The first ghost would be difficult to enact on the stage:
It was a strange figure -- like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a child's proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were very long and muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were, like those upper members, bare. It wore a tunic of the purest white and round its waist was bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.
Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing steadiness, was not its strangest quality. For as its belt sparkled and glittered now in one part and now in another, and what was light one instant, at another time was dark, so the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness: being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body: of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible in the dense gloom wherein they melted away. And in the very wonder of this, it would be itself again; distinct and clear as ever.
The second ghost:
It was clothed in one simple green robe, or mantle, bordered with white fur. This garment hung so loosely on the figure, that its capacious breast was bare, as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by any artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the ample folds of the garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no other covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free: free as its genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded round its middle was an antique scabbard; but no sword was in it, and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust.
I don't see how the symbolism matters to everyman. Unless one does a deep study, the imagery is just descriptive and doesn't have to be symbolic, but I do like a show that respects the original text and the author, so for that a major rewrite would be required. The show is a long one and really demands the humor of the second ghost at that point.
I would rather adopt a rewrite in the Christmas Yet to Be scene. While the music is beautiful and the singing is superb, it sounds, looks, and feels too Catholic to my liking. I think they would do well to make it appeal more to general Christianity.
As for
Wonderful Life, nothing can replace the movie. This show does not have the same feel as the Christmas Carol (since WL is set in a period
after the parks theme. Again, it is a long show for a theme park, but at the same time, that's nice since it keeps us out of the weather.
We only saw the last of the parade, but I can't imagine it cost what they claim. If so, I may be in the wrong business. The City is not made for a parade, and it does shut much of the operations down when it comes through. That's true of any parade, of course, but it really can trap a person in a very small space if one does not plan ahead.
Looking at the LED lights in our neighborhood, I concur about them leaving me cold. The colors seem metallic and uninviting to me.
