A Christmas Carol (musical)
Encyclopedia
A Christmas Carol is a musical with songs written by Alan Menken
(music) and Lynn Ahrens
(lyrics). The musical is based on Charles Dickens
' famous 1843 novella
of the same name. Scrooge's neglected fiancée Emily was originally named Belle in the book and other adaptations. The show was presented annually at Madison Square Garden from 1994 to 2003.
starred as Scrooge. Other "Scrooges" have been Walter Charles
, Tim Curry
, Tony Randall
, Hal Linden
, Roddy McDowall
, Frank Langella
, Tony Roberts
, Jim Dale
, and Roger Daltrey
.
The visit of the ghost of Jacob Marley
becomes a large-scale production number ("Link By Link"), featuring a half-dozen singing, dancing spirits presented with various levels of makeup and special effects. One of these ghosts in this version is known to be an old colleague of Scrooge and Marley's, Mr. Haynes, who was said to be "mean to the bone", resulting in his charred skeleton. Other puns include another, headless spirit who wanted to get ahead.
The Ghost of Christmas Past sings "The Lights of Long Ago", a number reinforcing the character's signature theme of illuminating Scrooge's worldview. One notable departure from Dickens' novella in this portion of the film is its depiction of Ebenezer Scrooge's father, identified as John William Scrooge, being sentenced to debtor's prison while his horrified family looks on (a scene inspired by events from Dickens' own childhood).
The Ghost of Christmas Present gets two numbers, "Abundance and Charity" and "Christmas Together", in which he makes his point that Christmas is a time for celebration, generosity, and fellowship. The former takes place at a fantastical version of the charity show he was seen promoting on Christmas Eve, and the latter whisks Scrooge on a tour of London that includes the homes of his nephew Fred, his clerk Bob Cratchit, and Mr. Smythe, a recently widowed client of Scrooge's lending house.
The entire Christmas Future sequence plays out in song ("Dancing On Your Grave", "You Mean More to Me (Reprise)", and "Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Today"), culminating in Scrooge's awakening in his bedroom on Christmas morning.
"What a Day, What a Sky" serves as a musical bookend to "Nothing to Do With Me", dramatizing Scrooge's new outlook as he races through the streets of London making amends. The film concludes with a reprise of "Christmas Together" featuring the entire cast.
Alan Menken
Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...
(music) and Lynn Ahrens
Lynn Ahrens
Lynn Ahrens is an American writer and lyricist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years...
(lyrics). The musical is based on Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
' famous 1843 novella
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
of the same name. Scrooge's neglected fiancée Emily was originally named Belle in the book and other adaptations. The show was presented annually at Madison Square Garden from 1994 to 2003.
Productions
A Christmas Carol has been performed annually in December at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden from December 1994 until December 2003. In the December 2002 production, which used direction by the late Mike Ockrent and choreography by Susan Stroman, F. Murray AbrahamF. Murray Abraham
Fahrid Murray Abraham is an American actor. He became known during the 1980s after winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus. He has appeared in many roles, both leading and supporting, in films such as All the President's Men and Scarface...
starred as Scrooge. Other "Scrooges" have been Walter Charles
Walter Charles
Walter Charles is an American actor and singer.Charles made his Broadway debut in Grease in 1972...
, Tim Curry
Tim Curry
Timothy James "Tim" Curry is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California....
, Tony Randall
Tony Randall
Tony Randall was a U.S. actor, comic, producer and director.-Early years:Randall was born Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer...
, Hal Linden
Hal Linden
Hal Linden is an American stage and television actor and television director, best known for his role in the television comedy series Barney Miller and as presenter on the ABC educational series Animals, Animals, Animals....
, Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
, Frank Langella
Frank Langella
-Early life:Langella, an Italian American, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, the son of Angelina and Frank A. Langella Sr., a business executive who was the president of the Bayonne Barrel and Drum Company. Langella attended Washington Elementary School and Bayonne High School in Bayonne...
, Tony Roberts
Tony Roberts (actor)
David Anthony "Tony" Roberts is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in several Woody Allen movies, usually cast as Allen's best friend.-Early life:...
, Jim Dale
Jim Dale
Jim Dale, MBE is an English actor, voice artist, singer and songwriter. He is best known in the United Kingdom for his many appearances in the Carry On series of films and in the US for narrating the Harry Potter audiobook series, for which he received two Grammy Awards, and the ABC series Pushing...
, and Roger Daltrey
Roger Daltrey
Roger Harry Daltrey, CBE , is an English singer and actor, best known as the founder and lead singer of English rock band The Who. He has maintained a musical career as a solo artist and has also worked in the film industry, acting in a large number of films, theatre and television roles and also...
.
Synopsis
The opening numbers are "The Years Are Passing By" and "Jolly, Rich, and Fat". In later productions the two numbers are combined as "Jolly Good Time." In the next number, "Nothing to Do With Me", Scrooge first encounters the three ghosts of Christmas in their real-world guises as a lamplighter (Past), a charity show barker (Present), and a blind beggar woman (sometimes cast as Future). We also see Scrooge's long-suffering employee Bob Cratchit buying a Christmas chicken with his son Tiny Tim in the song "You Mean More to Me".The visit of the ghost of Jacob Marley
Jacob Marley
Jacob Marley is a fictional character who appears in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.- Relationship with Scrooge:In life, Marley was the business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge. As teenagers, both men had been apprenticed in business and met as clerks in another business...
becomes a large-scale production number ("Link By Link"), featuring a half-dozen singing, dancing spirits presented with various levels of makeup and special effects. One of these ghosts in this version is known to be an old colleague of Scrooge and Marley's, Mr. Haynes, who was said to be "mean to the bone", resulting in his charred skeleton. Other puns include another, headless spirit who wanted to get ahead.
The Ghost of Christmas Past sings "The Lights of Long Ago", a number reinforcing the character's signature theme of illuminating Scrooge's worldview. One notable departure from Dickens' novella in this portion of the film is its depiction of Ebenezer Scrooge's father, identified as John William Scrooge, being sentenced to debtor's prison while his horrified family looks on (a scene inspired by events from Dickens' own childhood).
The Ghost of Christmas Present gets two numbers, "Abundance and Charity" and "Christmas Together", in which he makes his point that Christmas is a time for celebration, generosity, and fellowship. The former takes place at a fantastical version of the charity show he was seen promoting on Christmas Eve, and the latter whisks Scrooge on a tour of London that includes the homes of his nephew Fred, his clerk Bob Cratchit, and Mr. Smythe, a recently widowed client of Scrooge's lending house.
The entire Christmas Future sequence plays out in song ("Dancing On Your Grave", "You Mean More to Me (Reprise)", and "Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Today"), culminating in Scrooge's awakening in his bedroom on Christmas morning.
"What a Day, What a Sky" serves as a musical bookend to "Nothing to Do With Me", dramatizing Scrooge's new outlook as he races through the streets of London making amends. The film concludes with a reprise of "Christmas Together" featuring the entire cast.
Musical numbers
- "The Years Are Passing By" – Gravedigger
- "Jolly, Rich and Fat (A Jolly Good Time)" – Ensemble
- "Nothing to Do With Me" – Scrooge, Cratchit
- "Street Song"("Nothing To Do With Me") – Scrooge, Cratchit, Fred, Jonathan, Sandwich Board Man, Lamplighter, Blind Old Hag, Ensemble
- "Link By Link" – Ghost of Jacob Marley, Ensemble
- "The Lights of Long Ago" (Part 1) – Ghost of Christmas Past, Scrooge Family
- "God Bless Us, Everyone" – Scrooge's Mother, Fan (aged 6), Scrooge (aged 8)
- "A Place Called Home" – Scrooge at 18, Emily, Scrooge
- "Mr. Fezziwig's Annual Christmas Ball" – Fezziwig, Mrs. Fezziwig, Scrooge, Ghost of Christmas Past, Ensemble
- "The Lights of Long Ago" (Part 2) – Scrooge (aged 18), Marley as a Young Man, Emily, People from Scrooge's Past
- "Abundance And Charity" – Ghost of Christmas Present, Ensemble
- "Christmas Together" – Tiny Tim, Ghost of Christmas Present, Cratchit Family, Fred, Ensemble
- "Dancing On Your Grave" – Scrooge, Mrs. Mops, Ensemble
- "Yesterday, Tomorrow And Today" – Scrooge
- "The Years Are Passing By" (reprise) - Jonathan
- "Nothing to Do With Me" (reprise) - Scrooge
- "Christmas Together" (reprise)
- "God Bless Us Everyone" – Company
1995 Recording cast
- Punch and Judy Man/Marley as a young man/Undertaker - Christopher SieberChristopher SieberChristopher Sieber is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Kevin Burke in Two of a Kind starring Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen and Lord Farquaad in Shrek the Musical. Christopher studied acting and musical comedy at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City...
- Punch and Judy Woman - Donna Lee Marshall
- Organ Grinder - Robert Ousley
- Grave Digger - Bill Nolte
- Mr. Smythe - Joseph Kolinski
- Jack Smythe - Andy Jobe
- Grace Smythe - Lindsay Jobe
- ScroogeEbenezer ScroogeEbenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness...
- Walter Charles - CratchitBob CratchitRobert "Bob" Cratchit is a fictional character who is the abused, underpaid clerk of Ebenezer Scrooge in the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol...
- Nick Corley - Charity Men - Robert Ousley, Martin Van Treuren, Walter Willison
- Old Joe/Mr. Hawkins - Ken McMullen
- Match Girl - Arlene Pierret
- Street Urchins and Children - Matthew F. Byrne, Jacy De Filippo, Justin Bartholemew Kamen, Olivia Oguma, Christopher Mark Petrizzo, P.J. Smith
- Sandwich Board Man/Ghost of Christmas PresentGhost of Christmas PresentThe Ghost of Christmas Present is a character in one of the best-known works of the English novelist Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. The Spirit closely resembles Father Christmas from local folklore....
- Michael Mandell - Fred - Robert WestenbergRobert WestenbergRobert Westenberg is an American musical theatre actor and acting teacher. He married actress and singer Kim Crosby on June 19, 1991, and the couple now have three children.-Early Life:...
- Jonathan - Jason Fuchs
- Lamplighter/Ghost of Christmas PastGhost of Christmas PastThe Ghost of Christmas Past is a character in the well-known work of the English novelist Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol.The Ghost of Christmas Past was the first of the three spirits that haunted the miser. Ebenezer Scrooge in order to prompt him to repent...
- Ken Jennings - Blind Hag/Scrooge's Mother - Andrea Frierson Toney
- Mrs. Mops - Darcy Pulliam
- Ghost of Jacob MarleyJacob MarleyJacob Marley is a fictional character who appears in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.- Relationship with Scrooge:In life, Marley was the business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge. As teenagers, both men had been apprenticed in business and met as clerks in another business...
- Jeff Keller - Judge - Michael H. Ingram
- Scrooge at 8 - David Gallagher
- Fan at 6 - Mary Elizabeth Albano
- Scrooge's Father/Undertaker - Michael X. Martin
- Scrooge at 12 - Ramzi Khalaf
- Fan at 10 - Jacy De Filippo or Olivia Oguma
- FezziwigFezziwigMr. and Mrs. Fezziwig are characters featured in the Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol. Mr. Fezziwig is the owner of a warehouse business; Ebenezer Scrooge and Dick Wilkins worked as apprentices for him. Mr. Fezziwig is a happy, foppish man with a large Welsh wig. In Stave 2 of A...
- Gerry Vichi - Scrooge at 18 - Michael Christopher Moore
- Mrs. Fezziwig - Mary Stout
- Emily - Emily SkinnerEmily SkinnerEmily Skinner is an American musical theatre actress and singer. She has performed in such Broadway shows as Side Show, James Joyce's The Dead, The Full Monty, Dinner at Eight and, currently, in Billy Elliot...
- Tiny TimTiny TimTiny Tim may refer to:* Tiny Tim , a fictional character from A Christmas Carol* Tiny Tim , American musician known best for his cover of "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" in 1968...
- Matthew Mezzacappa - Mrs. Cratchit - Joy Hermalyn
- The Cratchit Children - Mary Elizabeth Albano, Betsy Chang, David Gallagher, Sean Thomas Morrissey
- Sally, Fred's Wife - Natalie Toro
- Ensemble - Joan Barber, Leslie Ball, Renee Bergeron, Christophe Caballero, Candy Cook, Madeleine Doherty, Mark Dovey, Donna Dunmire, Melissa Haizlip, Michael Howard-Jones, Mark S. Hoebee, Don Johanson, Eric H. Kaufman, John-Charles, Kelly, David Lowenstein, Seth Malkin, Carol Lee Meadows, Karen Murphy, Tom Pardoe, Gail Pennington, Angela Piccinni, Josef Reiter, Pamela Remler, Sam Reni, Eric Riley, Rommy Sandhu, Erin Stoddard Tracy Terstriep, Cynthia Thole, Matthew J. Vargo, Billy Vitelli, Theara J. Ward, Whitney Webster
- Angels - Blessed Sacrament Chorus of Staten Island, PS 26 Chorus, Righteousness Unlimted, William F. Halloran Vocal Ensemble-School 22