If any classic tale is destined for musical treatment, Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” a novella with a song in its title, is surely high on the list.
From Saturday until Dec. 22, High Valley Arts will stage “A Christmas Carol: The Musical” at Midway Town Hall. The story begins on Christmas Eve 1843, in London. Ebenezer Scrooge, played by Whitney Peterson, has lived a financially successful life cultivating his hoardings at the expense of others. “Bah, humbug!” is his dismissive refrain to requests for charity. Yet the spirit of his old business partner, Jacob Marley, played by Lhomond Jones, and the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future pay visits to the miser, telling tales that force Scrooge to undergo a reckoning about what truly constitutes a meaningful life.
Alan Mencken wrote the music, and Lynn Ahrons wrote the lyrics for the musical, which debuted on Broadway in 1993. Leonard Wilkerson is the director of the 43-member cast.
Wilkerson has acted in High Valley Arts productions for over a decade and appeared as Young Scrooge and Fred, Scrooge’s nephew, in earlier stagings of the musical. This will be his first time directing a production while also playing the role of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s underpaid clerk.
“My favorite part is the Marley dance because it’s so fun with everybody dancing and scaring Scrooge,” Wilkerson said. “With all of the dances in general, our choreographer has been amazing, and it’s been really fun for me as a first-time director to see behind the scenes how a choreographer works and gets everybody to learn those dances and what a spice that adds to the overall production.”
The cast will perform 17 songs during the 90-minute play with an intermission.
“There’s some dialogue for sure, but most of the action is portrayed through music,” Wilkerson said.
This staging will mark the first time High Valley Arts has enlisted professional dancers from Midway’s Box Studio to join the volunteer cast.
“It’s been a little bit of a challenge to try to get them integrated with the traditional actors that we’ve been using and getting everybody working together,” Wilkerson said. “Once we got over the hurdles, it’s been amazing to have more professional dancers in the cast. In the past we would hope that everybody who tried out had some singing, acting and dancing skills, so it’s been pretty cool to be able to use people who are just dancers.”
While High Valley Arts stores many of its costumes and sets for reuse between productions, the centerpieces are too big to store; they are custom-made for this staging. One versatile walkway simulates a bridge over a river in some scenes, while serving as a section of a bank and a factory in others. The Cratchit and Anderson family homes also have a multiuse feature.
“We were able to come up with a concept for some different-looking houses where we were able to print the facade of a house,” Wilkerson said. “We have to both show the exterior of the house and be able to enter into the house and interact with the family inside, so I think we’ve come up with a pretty cool idea for that where the house facades will be able to swing open to allow the audience to see the interior of the houses. It should be a nice look to be able to have someone walk up to the outside of a house then open up and find out what’s going on inside.”
The musical score is one of Mencken’s works from a lifetime of productions that has earned him Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. Ahrens is a Tony Award winner who also wrote the teleplay for “A Christmas Carol: The Musical.”
“I’ve just been impressed with the screenwriter and the music writer,” Wilkerson said. “They came up with amazing, brand-new, original songs that really lend a lot to this production. If you haven’t seen it, be prepared to see some new material from some pretty genius writers.”
Crowd appreciation makes this musical a popular returning favorite for holiday audiences, and Wilkerson said he considers its potential to convert even the skeptical.
“If you need something to get you in the mood of the Christmas spirit, it’s a perfect one,” Wilkerson said. “There are those themes that run through it of generosity, happiness and joy, and seeing Scrooge’s change from a miser into a more generous and compassionate human being would warm anybody’s heart.”
Tickets are available at HighValleyArts.org