Frank Sinatra did it. Cher did it. And now Mark Cabus is doing it too - a second farewell tour of his one-man production of A Christmas Carol, playing Belmont University's Black Box Theatre at 1575 Compton Avenue, December 17-20.
"F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives," said Cabus, a veteran actor/director and founder of the Naked Stages theater company. "And I have two words for him - Richard Nixon."
Perhaps Cabus can't be trusted to offer an uplifting quote for his press releases., but you can be trusted to deliver a bravura performance - make that four performances - in the Second Annual Farewell Tour of his acclaimed one-man A Christmas Carol, in which he plays all 34 characters in Dickens' classic tale of transformation and redemption.
Cabus has been doing the production throughout the past decade since he and Carolyn German adapted the 1843 novella for the stage.
"Cabus delivers a tour de force, acting out all the parts in Charles Dickens' Holiday classic and making it seem as if that's the only way it should be done...," wrote Kevin Nance, the former theatre critic for The Tennessean. "This Christmas Carol is one of the smallest yet most sensational shows of the year. Don't miss it."
If you missed Cabus' first Nashville farewell last year, you're in luck. If you saw it, you get a chance to relive the magic one more time, but there's no guarantee that the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future will inhabit Cabus next year in Nashville - or anywhere else for that matter.
"I certainly hope not,' Cabus said. "There are too many people inside me right now as it is."
Mark Cabus' A Christmas Carol will be performed at 7:30 p.m. December 17, 18 and 19, and on Sunday, December 20, at 4 p.m. Tickets are $15 at the door; $12 in advance at TicketsNashville.com. Discounted tickets, priced at $10, are available for Actors Equity members, while students and seniors with ID will only pay $5. This performance is appropriate for the whole family but suggested for children 12 and over.
