A magical new interpretation of Charles Dickens’ timeless story, A Christmas Carol. Winner of five Tony Awards, this New York Times Critic’s Pick welcomes theatergoers of all ages into an immersive experience that is brimming with Christmas spirit. Featuring dazzling staging, moving storytelling, and 12 cherished Christmas carols, including “Joy to the World,” “Silent Night,” and “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear,” this timely production will leave you with a heart full of joy and light!
“YOU WILL LEAVE THE THEATER WITH A HEART FULL OF JOY AND LIGHT!” – Entertainment Weekly
“VIBRANT, COMPASSIONATE AND TIMELY.” – Deadline
“AN ENCHANTING SPECTACLE!” – The Hollywood Reporter
On a cold and frosty Christmas Eve night, a bitter and hard-hearted miser is visited by four ghosts. Be transported to worlds past, present and future, and re-live the torment and suffering of old Ebeneezer Scrooge. Staring Bradley Whitford as Ebenezer Scrooge, you will witness what a lifetime of fear and selfishness has led to, and see with fresh eyes the lonely life he has built for himself. Can Ebenezer be saved before it’s too late?
A Christmas Carol is a play by two visionary Tony Award winners, the playwright Jack Thorne from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and director Matthew Warchus from Matilda, it is based on the 1843 novella of the same name by Charles Dickens and is one of very many adaptations of the story into a musical or play.
This new adaptation of A Christmas Carol premiered at the Old Vic in London in November 2017, directed by Old Vic Artistic Director Matthew Warchus and designed by Rob Howell, with music composed and orchestrated by Chris Nightingale. The rest of the creative team are music direction by Remy Kurs, music supervision by Paul Staroba, music coordination by Howard Joines, casting by Jim Carnahan and Jason Thinger, and movement by Lizzi Gee.
The Old Vic production opened on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in November 2019, however the set was adapted into a traditional proscenium arch setting instead of the round with seating onstage and a walkway going through the centre of the stalls.
This new Broadway production won 5 Tony Awards for Best Original Score (Christopher Nightingale), Best Scenic Design of a Play (Rob Howell), Best Costume Design of a Play (Rob Howell), Best Lighting Design of a Play (Hugh Vanstone), and Best Sound Design of a Play (Simon Baker) and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Adaptation.
Review of A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic, London by Michael Billington for The Guardian.
Jack Thorne’s superb retelling mines the ghosts of Scrooge’s past in a timely production brimming with love and affection.
Two months after Dickens’s story first appeared at Christmas in 1843 there were eight rival versions on the London stage. It has been endlessly adapted ever since, but Jack Thorne’s new version, stands high on my list of favourites. In Matthew Warchus’s superb production it combines Dickens’s social anger with a genuine sense of festivity. He also instinctively understands GK Chesterton’s point that A Christmas Carol is “an enjoyable nightmare”. While heightening the fable’s hallucinatory quality, Thorne gives it unexpected psychological depth.
Special mention has to be made of Christopher Nightingale’s music. Seizing on the story’s title, he adorns the action with carols, many played by the cast on handbells, that movingly counterpoint Scrooge’s misanthropy with a message of charity and hope.