The Alabama Shakespeare Festival is bringing back a traditional holiday favorite and making it bigger than ever. The Broadway holiday sellout A Christmas Carol: The Musical will play on the Festival stage from November 7 – December 24. A Christmas Carol: The Musical follows in the tradition of successful musical productions like Peter Pan and Disney's Beauty and the Beast, promising a bigger and better Carol than any ever seen before at ASF.
A Christmas Carol: The Musical features music by
Alan Menken (Disney's Beauty and the Beast,
The Little Mermaid) and lyrics by
Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime, Seussical the Musical). It was an annual holiday event for ten years on Broadway at
Madison Square Garden. ASF's production features a large cast, a live orchestra conducted by Musical Director
Tom Griffin, costume designs by Resident Costume Cesigner Elizabeth Novak and scenic design by
Paul Wonsek that incorporates a turntable, an element that will appear again in the repertory season and summer production of Les Misérables.
The forty-five member cast of A Christmas Carol: The Musical includes many familiar faces. Local favorite Rodney Clark will play the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. Clark has been with ASF for over thirteen seasons and has recently been seen as Krupke in
West Side Story, King Cymbeline in Shakespeare's Cymbeline, Captain Hook in Peter Pan and Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. Montgomery native Meegan Midkiff will play Emily, young Scrooge's lost love. Midkiff, who made her professional debut at ASF in the seventh grade, has performed in New York with
Eartha Kitt and toured the U.S. with productions of The Music Man and Kiss Me Kate. In 2005, Meegan was given the first annual AEA
Roger Sturtevant Musical Theatre Award. Twelve young local actors are cast in this production including Hayley Covington and Victoria Web (Grace Smythe, Belinda Cratchit), Jackson Massey and Matthew Sailors (Nikolas, Peter Cratchit, Scrooge at 12), Sandy Draper and
Mary Allison Tyner (Martha Cratchit, Fan), Mary Cate Norris and Crispin South (Tiny Tim), Naden Kreitz and Seth Meriwether (Jonathon,Fred's Child), Ashley Anthony and Sam Walker (Scrooge at 8,Ignorance) and Emma Grant and Hayden Pruett (Want).
A number of special promotions will be offered. In addition to the extended week of preview performances at just $25, there will be a Premium Christmas Eve matinee performance including a last-minute chance to visit with Santa before he takes off on his midnight flight. Tickets to the Premium Christmas Eve performance are $60 for adults and $35 for children under 18. The theatre also plans to offer carriage rides in the Blount Cultural Park.
Tickets are on sale now! Tickets to the extended week of previews November 7 – 16 are just $25. Regular performances are November 18-December 23. Tuesday & Wednesday tickets are $45 and Thursday – Sunday tickets are $50. Tickets for patrons ages 6 – 18 are only $25. Evening performances are at 7:30 PM. Matinees on Saturdays and Sundays and some weekdays are at 2PM. The opening performance on Sunday, November 16 will be followed by a reception with the cast. Tickets are available now by calling the ASF Box Office toll free at (800) 841-4273 or online at
www.asf.net.
Photo of Alan Menken by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.
