Scrooge (musical)
| Scrooge | |
|---|---|
| The Musical | |
| Music | Leslie Bricusse |
| Lyrics | Leslie Bricusse |
| Book | Leslie Bricusse |
| Basis | Scrooge (1970 film) and Dickens' A Christmas Carol |
| Productions | 1992 Birmingham 1993 Melbourne 1996 West End 2003-14 UK and Ireland tour 2004 Chicago 2005 West End revival 2012 West End revival 2017 Leicester |
Scrooge: The Musical is a 1992 stage musical with book, music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. Its score and book are closely adapted from the music and screenplay of the 1970 musical film Scrooge starring Albert Finney and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Bricusse was nominated for an Academy Award for the song score he wrote for the film, and most of those songs were carried over to the musical.
Like the film, the musical closely follows the plot of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, in which the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge undergoes a profound experience of redemption over the course of a Christmas Eve night, after being visited by the ghost of his former partner Jacob Marley and the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.
Leslie Bricusse spent several months with the director Bob Tomson adapting the screenplay for the stage. Tomson recommended appointing designer, Paul Farnsworth, to the team and established a Victorian theatre style for all the locations, illusions and characters. Initially the ghost illusions were entrusted to Paul Daniels, but he was replaced after the first production with Paul Kieve.
The original production starred Anthony Newley as Scrooge and opened on 9 November 1992 at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham. The cast also included Stratford Johns, Tom Watt and Jon Pertwee. The production later transferred to the West End, starring Newley, at the Dominion Theatre from 12 November 1996 to 1 February 1997.
Bill Kenwright produced a remount of the original production which toured the UK and Ireland for the Christmas seasons between 2003 and 2013 starring Tommy Steele in the title role (with the exceptions of Shane Richie in the 2005 and 2007 tours and Michael Barrymore in the 2006 tour. The show was on hiatus for the 2008 Christmas season). The production transferred into the West End starring Steele for the 2005 (while Richie toured an identical production) and 2012 Christmas seasons at the London Palladium, making Steele the record-holder for the most performances headlined at the Palladium.
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