A fast, funny and highly theatrical reimagining of one of the most beloved holiday stories ever told!
by tom andrew –
Ebenezer Scrooge’s BIG San Diego Christmas Show written by the Broadway team of Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen opened at The Old Globe last month. It’s not your typical holiday Christmas Carol, but they have promised to give you an intact rendition of the holiday classic that seemingly pops up everywhere around this time of year.
Greenberg and Rosen are no strangers to the theatre world, having many Broadway shows under their belts.
Greenberg, a Stanford University graduate, has directed Holiday Inn, the revival of Guys and Dolls on the West End, and a revision of the musical Working. He’s also responsible for directing the new Disney musical Tangled.
Rosen has mainly been a performer on stage and screen over the years. He was in the original Broadway cast of Spamalot, The Farnsworth Invention and Guys and Dolls.
As writers, Rosen and Greenberg have co-written The Curious Case of the Curse of Count Dracula and they are currently working on the musical adaptation of The Secret of My Success.
Their collaboration on Ebenezer Scrooge is written so it can work with any theatre, in any city by changing out local references.
They have assembled a six-person cast with Robert Joy playing Scrooge (Robert Joy). The other five actors, including San Diegan Jacque Wilke, are playing all the other roles. Those five actors will be getting a workout playing almost three dozen characters.
Wilke, whose roles include Prudence Saint, Ghost of Christmas Past, Mrs. Cratchit and Jennie, points out that she has quite a few costume changes.
“The result is that our story becomes a San Diego story, sparking laughter and — by the end — offering a spirit of hope and generosity to the very community gathered in the theatre.”
– robert joy
“Oh man,” Wilke said. “Let me think. I want to say around 18 total changes back and forth between all of the different characters, and the show is only around 75 minutes long, ha! You definitely have to know what’s coming next … otherwise the train has left the station.”
All in all, Wilke plays more than seven roles.
“I get to play a variety of characters,” Wilke said. “I think around seven, plus the narrator. Gertrude Saint, Son of Pitch, Mrs. Cratchit, Jennie, Ghost of Christmas Past, Lady Marmalade, and Christmas Yet to Come. They are all vastly different, and quick shifts from one to the next, which keeps things very fast and fun!”
Since the show has been done before, one would think that the task of creating these characters is something the cast wouldn’t have to worry about, but not so, according to Wilke.
“This show premiered last year in Bucks County,” Pennsylvania, Wilke said. “We have been using the old script with San Diego additions and references. However, every day we make changes to our version of it, just depending on what we’ve discovered in the rehearsal room. The characters from A Christmas Carol are the foundation, but each actor has been able to create their own interpretation of it.”
Playing the classic role of Scrooge is Robert Joy, who is probably one of the most recognizable actors of today. The thing is you probably can’t pin him down to one role because he has played so many.
For those who are Madonna fans, Joy played her boyfriend in Suddenly Seeking Susan. He was in the film Fallen and is a main cast member of the show CSI: NY playing the role of Dr. Sid Hammerback.
Joy is a busy actor who always finds time to work on stage.
“I have not played Scrooge before,” Joy said. “But a few years ago, I played Malvolio in Rebecca Taichman’s production of Twelfth Night here at The Old Globe. As I approached the role of Scrooge, I realized that there are hints of him in Malvolio, another repressed grump who transforms into euphoria. Malvolio, of course, transforms back. Scrooge does not, making his transformation an authentic redemption.”
Joy knows a lot about the classic version by Charles Dickens, he said he is embracing the new rendition that the playwrights have come up with.
“Well, our version of the story is wildly different from, say, the classic film Scrooge (starring Alastair Sim),” Joy mentioned about the 1951 movie. “We posit that a young ambitious Ebenezer emigrated to the New World to make his fortune and settled in San Diego. Our writers Steve Rosen and Gordon Greenberg have had a field day with this new premise, both comedically and dramatically. The result is that our story becomes a San Diego story, sparking laughter and — by the end — offering a spirit of hope and generosity to the very community gathered in the theatre.”
As earlier mentioned, this is the first time that Joy is playing the role. An opportunity that actually fell in his lap.
“I’ve been drawn to the role of Scrooge since I was FAR too young to play it!” Joy said. “I first saw the film Scrooge when I was about 7? Whenever it was, I was hooked! Let’s see … the film Scrooge was released in the year of my birth … well, see there, it was FATE!”
The Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein had apparently reached out to Gordon and Rosen recommending that Joy play the role of Scrooge. A meeting was set up between the three, Joy loved the script, and soon the job was his.
“As for Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big San Diego Christmas Show,” Joy pondered. “On first reading, this script excited me as an opportunity to combine my appetites for both comedy and drama. My career started firmly in comedy: I spent seminal years as actor/writer/composer/musician in the Newfoundland comedy group CODCO. Subsequently, I’ve played a lot of dramatic roles as well. This show mines my entire background, all my resources. Besides, what actor wouldn’t be drawn to Scrooge?! There’s no role like it. I can’t think of another character in dramatic literature who goes through such enormous change! The range of emotional ‘colors’ is absolutely kaleidoscopic!”
One thing for sure is that both Joy and Wilke are enjoying the process of putting this show together and swear by the Gordon/Rosen script. Both actors are quite adept at comedy. Most San Diegans know that about Wilke based on the many shows she has done here.
So there are many reasons to see this new take on an old favorite classic.
The West Coast premiere of Ebenezer Scrooge’s BIG San Diego Christmas Show runs through Sunday, December 29. theoldglobe.org or 619-234-5623