When a cold wind blows— it chills you! Chills you to the bone! But there’s nothing in nature that freezes your heart like years of being alone! It paints you with indifference like a lady paints with rouge. And the worst of the worst! The most hated and cursed— is the one that we call SCROOGE! Unkind as any— with the wrath of many— this is EBENEZER SCROOGE! (And yes, I did that from memory. And sadly, no, this is not Michael Cane. It’s better.) We’ve got the one— the only— Ebenezer Scrooge, or in this case, Bobby Mahoney, sharing his humbuggin’ spirit with us!

Thank you for giving us some of your rehearsal time, Bobby, so excited to sit and chat with you again, I know this is not the first one I’ve done with you, though I think last time we did this— a few Christmas pasts ago— it was you and Jude for— what was it, A Christmas Story?

Bobby Mahoney: That’s right.

And you’re playing Scrooge, right?

Bobby: I am!

How the heck did that happen?

Bobby: I don’t know. I auditioned for Jacob Marley. I played the part back in 2008—

So Jude told me. And he was raving about it. And the whole time I’m nodding and smiling politely because in my head I’m thinking, “wait, were you even born yet?”

Bobby: He wasn’t! He wasn’t born until 2011!

Oh my goodness. The way he was talking, you would think he was there in the wings with the Stage Manager’s headset on or something. That’s wild! I adore Jude. He’s a hoot. At any rate, you were saying?

Bobby: Yeah, I played Jacob once before and I loved it. So I wanted to audition for that part because it was a one-and-done role, and then you get to sit backstage and relax, kind of like a King Herod thing.

You certainly love you a princess track!

Bobby: Yes I do! But they called and said “we want to offer you Ebenezer Scrooge.” And then they told me they were offering my son Christmas Present, so of course Jude is like, “Come on, Dad! Come on! We can do it together! We can do another show together!” And I can’t say no to him. It was a great experience the last time, which was just last year with Elf, so why not do it again? And you only get so many years with your kids before they don’t want to be around you anymore. So I’m taking every chance I get. Somebody told me the other day that their 13-year-old wants nothing to do with them, and I’m over here hoping that Jude won’t be like that. He’s different.

I think you’re safe. I just had him out in the hallway with the other two ghosts…and he’s belting out Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and I was sure Sarah was going to come out and be like “What. Is. Happening.” Because he’s that good— I mean I wish it was an actual audio interview rather than just transcripts so I could include that.

Bobby: Yeah, he’s fantastic. He’s better than I ever will be already at just 11. He’s legit.

I love that you guys get to do another show together. Now we just have to work on that wife of yours…Lisa, if you’re reading this, this is your invitation! Now, Bobby, do you have a favorite version of A Christmas Carol?

Bobby: The Muppets.

Well that’s just about everybody. At least me, Steve, Ashley, and Sarah…and now you.

Bobby: I grew up with The Muppets. So them bringing that fresh spin on a classic drew me right in. I watch it at least three or four times a season.

Oh yes! Same here. And for years— and I mean embarrassingly for YEARS— all growing up and as a young teenager, I was adamant in the way that know-it-all-youngins are that people were just wrong. That it wasn’t Jacob Marley. There were, in fact, TWO Marley brothers. Jacob. And Robert. Clearly, Charles Dickens didn’t know his own work— there were two! But I digress…do you have a favorite song in this production of A Christmas Carol?
Bobby: I do. “Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Today.” That’s his moment in the graveyard. It’s his point where he’s giving his confession that he’s going to change and that things are going to be different. He’s going to become the person that helps others and everything else. While practicing it, tears are automatically rolling down my face as I’m sitting at my desk. Now I work from home, thankfully, so there’s no audience for this, but I just love that song. It’s a difficult song because the notes are all over the place. But I love the whole meaning behind it. And I can just see it all coming together already and I’m getting teary-eyed now!

Aww! What does Christmas mean to you?

Bobby: It was my Dad’s favorite holiday, next to Halloween and I took that. But he used to go all out. Decorations were all out, everything else was all out. I still keep that connection with my Dad, even though he’s passed, I keep that alive. I decorate with Jude, we do all the Christmasy things. The only thing we don’t do— and I won’t do— is I won’t go and cut down a tree every year. We have an artificial one. Which is perfect. But otherwise, we go all out.

Going all out, do you have any Christmas traditions that it just won’t be Christmas if you don’t do that one thing?

Bobby: Eat fruitcake.

The— what? What did you just say?

Bobby: It’s not Christmas without a piece of fruitcake.

Uh-huh. Welp, I know where I’m sending all the fruitcake that gets sent to my house this year.

Bobby: PLEASE DO!!!

Oh my goodness…I feel like I’m living in A Christmas Story, except instead of my Aunt Clara laboring under the perpetual delusion of me in bunny-rabbit pajamas, it’s Robin’s middle brother who labors under the delusion that Robin loves fruitcake and sends us one…or like last year, three…every year. Robin can’t stand fruitcake! He sends them from some fancy bakery in Texas. The Something-Something-Street-Bakery. So when they all turn up again this year, I’ll ship them up to you in Bel Camp!

Bobby: Absolutely! Please do! You know, another thing that we do now, that we started during Covid, is we go to church and then we do karaoke. We go to church and then we do karaoke on Christmas Eve, just the three of us.

That sounds so wonderful and fun! What’s your favorite Christmas song?

Bobby: (for the record Bobby also started singing) Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright, Hawaiian Christmas Day…

Oh how perfect! I love that. What is your favorite food to eat at Christmas?

Bobby: Fruitcake.

Why did I even ask.

Bobby: No, no, my favorite is actually Cranberry Orange bread. My grandmother used to make it and she made the best cranberry orange bread, and now it’s passed on to me. So I make it and take it to her when she used to make it and take it to us.

That is really sweet. I’m getting all the feels over here. Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie?

Bobby: Gingerbread.

That is acceptable. Mostly because it’s not fruitcake. What’s your favorite Christmas movie?

Bobby: It’s between two. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story, of course.

Jude said the exact same thing.

Bobby: No way! Did he really? I love that! That’s great!

That is too wild. He could not be any more your son if he tried!

Bobby: Well he doesn’t like fruitcake.

Bless him! Praise Christmas, no fruitcake for Jude, there’s hope yet! Now I learned that you put up a tree, because Jude said you do, but do you have a favorite Christmas ornament?

Bobby: Our favorite tree is the rainbow tree.

You have more than one tree? Why am I not surprised?

Bobby: We used to put up two trees. A green tree— a regular tree with all the homemade ornaments on it. Then three years ago I surprised my wife with a rainbow tree. And we posted it and asked friends to send us ornaments to put on the rainbow tree, so it’s a family and friend love tree. That’s what we decorate that tree with. We’ve been slowly adding them. We ask people not to buy ornaments, just send things that are part of their Christmas to put on the tree.

I don’t think I told any of the others about my favorite ornament, but I’ll tell you. She’s my personal tree-topper. She’s from the— 40’s? 50’s? It’s this little plastic doll head, with closed eyes, she’s an actual angel, except that her body is made out of a cardboard toilet paper roll. And her body used to be covered in beautiful pink feathers. She belonged to my grandma— my mother’s mother— and she used to hang on her tree. Except when I was a bratty little child, I would rip all the feathers off. So she has like five feathers left. So when my grandmother died when I was ten, I was like “I WANT MY ANGEL!!” my mother had no idea what I was talking about. And we dug through all the boxes of ornaments to find this tatty little mostly featherless angel, and she went home with me and lived on the Christmas tree in my house growing up, and then when I moved out, she became my tree-topper. I love her so much.

Bobby: Aww. That is so awesome. When we first got the rainbow tree we didn’t have a topper, so it’s funny you mentioned her body being a toiler roll because I did the same thing but I put RuPaul’s face on it. RuPaul was the top of the rainbow tree!

As she should be! I love this! Do you guys go anywhere special or do anything special?

Bobby: We do. Lisa’s (wife and mother of Jude, Lisa Mahoney) family lives in Connecticut and we go up there. We usually leave the day after Christmas and we go up and stay in a hotel, it’s a three or four day stay, and we run non-stop from house to house. The friends, the family, and everyone. Last year I didn’t get to go, so I’m hoping they’ll let me work remotely in Connecticut, and if not, Jude and Lisa will go up again by themselves. Her family is quite small. My mom was one of 13, my dad was one of five. Lisa doesn’t talk to her dad and her mom has no siblings that are still alive, so we’re very tiny in Connecticut, but there’s a best friend and another family who is like family, so there’s plenty of people to visit in Connecticut.

I love that. Now I have to ask, because Jude mentioned it, which Aunt is playing “unwrap the bubble-wrap ball” game?

Bobby: Oh that’s my sister. Nikki.

Yay. Why do you want people to come out and see Christmas Carol?

Bobby: It’s really going to put you in the Christmas spirit. Everybody knows the story and it’s a different spin on it. Not everyone in Harford County is familiar with this Madison Square Garden version.

And if you had to sum up your experience getting to do A Christmas Carol, working with your son again, here at Tidewater Players, using just one word, which word do you use?

Bobby: I don’t know! Honor? Because it’s an honor to play Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ classic? But I’m also glad to have another moment with my son and I don’t know how to put that in one word. There’s a scene where it’s just him and I on stage and that hasn’t happened yet. And it’s such a wonderful thing that we can do this thing that we both love together. But he does remind me every day that Bambi Johnson is the reason that he’s in theatre, not me. I wouldn’t let him, I stopped his way, I stifled his artistry, and Bambi Johnson saw him doing a little dance during Seussical and she said “please let him be in the show.” He played a Who in that and he reminds me all the time and Jude dedicates his artistry to Bambi Johnson.

As he should. As we all should.

Bobby: Yes, as we all should.

A Christmas Carol plays November 15^th 2024 through November 24^th 2024 with Tidewater Players in residence at the Cultural Center at The Havre de Grace Opera House— 121 N. Union Street in historic downtown Havre de Grace, MD. For tickets call the box office at 667-225-8433 or purchase them online.

To read the holly-jolly interview with Director Sarah O’Hara, click here.

To read the holly-jolly interview with Elliot Lookingland, playing Tiny Tim, click here.

To read the holly-jolly interview with Flick, playing The Ghost of Jacob Marley, click here.

To read the holly-jolly interview with Jude Mahoney, Ashley Merrill, and B. Thomas Rinaldi, click here.