OnStage: Swinging a carol

You've known that Scrooge is a tightfisted skinflint who sneers at the poor and harries his own family members. But have you ever thought of Charles Dickens' famous miser as a hep cat?

Twin Cities audiences will find out if Scrooge can swing next weekend when he, Jacob Marley, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit and other characters from "A Christmas Carol" get big-band treatments.

Singer Charmin Michelle and composer Doug Haining have adapted the Dickens classic into a jazz concert,"A Copasetic Christmas Carol," to be presented at the Capri Theater in north Minneapolis.

"We use musical numbers in the style of [Count] Basie and Duke [Ellington] to paint pictures of the main characters in the story, with a different tune for each character," said Haining. "Swing music is the vehicle to tell the story, and we hope to capture their moods."

Haining worked closely with lyricist Michelle, a song stylist who has been gigging in Europe and working with performance troupes around town. She immersed herself in the hip lingo from the swing era before crafting her lyrics.

"I was inspired a lot by Cab Calloway, his showmanship, his wit," said Michelle, who fronts a jazz band for this show. "It became an easy piece to work with because it's a ghost story. Musically, it's all in where the melody goes and what chords you put over to see the mood."

"Copasetic Christmas Carol" made its premiere in a rudimentary version several years ago at the Dakota Jazz Club. It was supposed to be a one-off event.

Said Michelle: "We've been looking for a place to do it again, and to polish it."

Capri comeback?

The 250-seat Capri may be the perfect place for what organizers hope will be an annual holiday tradition. A onetime vaudeville house that also served as a movie showplace, the Capri is the last remaining theater on Minneapolis' North Side, according to Karl Reichert, who was hired in February to head up its revival.

In the 1980s, it was donated to the Plymouth Christian Youth Center. In the past few years, it has served as a venue for spoken-word performances and concerts.

"It has a great history, and we hope to bring it back," said Reichert, who has hired two performers with track records -- Dennis Spears and Kevin West -- as artistic associates.

"With this venue, we're building something from scratch," said Reichert. "It's exciting and exhilarating but also, at times, a little terrifying."

Haining and Michelle said that they appreciate the aesthetics of the Capri. "The acoustics are great and it has good sightlines," said Michelle. "It's a great place to show, in a musical way, the whole journey of Scrooge and the characters in 'Christmas Carol.' I think it's pretty hip."

Maybe audiences will think that about their treatment of Scrooge, too.

Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390