When Love Is Gone

Over Thanksgiving break, I had dinner with a friend from high school, Mary Kate. She lives in L.A. and works as an actress, among other jobs. We have written some things together, and, through collaboration, have gotten to be good friends, on the basis that we know things about each other that few others do. When you write with someone, you learn about things that don't come up in conversation. Like where the dinosaurs really went. But I actually use that bit in regular conversations, so it's not a good example.

Mary Kate is currently in rehearsals for a stage musical version of A Christmas Carol. This beloved holiday tale is based on a novella by Charles Dickens, who was paid per word, so the real Christmas miracle is that the story is so short. I realize that currently there is an adaptation in theaters, but the previews for it make Jim Carrey look like one of those Terminators which had rubber skin, before Skynet figured out how to clone human tissue. At least that's how I explained it to my niece.

Mary Kate's role is Belle, Ebeneezer Scrooge's one-time squeeze, who pops up during his time travel tour with the Ghost of Christmas past. I was delighted to hear this, because Belle has the best solo in what is now believed to be the greatest Dickensian adaptation, A Muppet Christmas Carol.

Wikipedia says that despite using muppets, the film is a fairly close adaptation, as if someone might have assumed Dickens originall wrote the character of Cratchit for a frog and had envisioned Scrooge's school teacher as a patriotic American bald eagle. To Wikipedia's credit, they're right - there were no muppets in the original book. But they didn't cite their sources.

When I was younger, as in a senior in high school, my family would watch A Muppet Christmas Carol every winter break, multiple times. For some reason it was adopted as a yuletide mascot, to represent our Christmas spirit. We know all the songs. Then, when I finally read the original story, I was amazed at how closely the muppet's film followed the narrative. Most of Gonzo's pertinent lines are unadulterated Charles. Except for "Light the lamp, not the rat." Though it has no literary basis, this catchphrase has been popular in my family for some time.

I told Mary Kate that when I relayed this information to my mom, she wouldn't reply, but her face would slide down as if anesthetized, and she would begin to sing Belle's solo, "When Love Is Gone." I also told her that I wouldn't be able to resist, but that I would join in and sing Scrooge's part when the solo becomes a duet around the bridge.

The best part is, they stand on a physical bridge when they sing that part. Don't believe me? Watch the video. IN COLOR!

And when I told my mom, she became sober, and began to sing, "It was almost love/It was almost always..." And I sang with her.