Arizona Theatre Company this weekend is bringing back βScrooge,β the holiday musical about a miserly businessmanβs journey to redemption as he discovers the true meaning of Christmas.
But this yearβs production will look different than last year.
The set from Emmy-winning designer Jason Ardizzone-West includes mechanical elements that transform the expansive set from scene to scene, with video enhancements adding to the visuals.
βWhen the audience comes in, they are going to see a production that looks like a full-scale Broadway production,β said ATC Artistic Director Matt August, who is directing the show.
The new production also features fleshed-out orchestrations to enhance playwright/songwriter Leslie Bricusseβs original soundtrack and βtweaks to the script that just get tighter and tighter,β he said.
βItβs a very big show and itβs a very heavy lift on ATC, as well,β August acknowledged. βThe organization is performing just astonishingly with this. Our production team has built this and itβs very big and it takes a lot of people to run it. We will see how long we can bring it back.β
August last year said he would like to make βScroogeβ an annual holiday offering, akin to Ballet Tucsonβs βThe Nutcracker,β which the company will perform with Tucson Symphony Orchestra Dec. 20-22 at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.
βThere is something that is very universal about this story that everybody can relate to, our feelings of insecurity, our feelings of alienation, our feelings of isolation, particularly now,β August said.
Tony Award-winning actor Shuler Hensley returns to play the titular role that he created last season β his first ever βScrooge.β
βItβs one of those roles that youβre like, βYeah, if I could find a way to be a part of it, I would love to try to do it,ββ he said.
Hensley is no stranger to playing the villain in holiday-themed plays. He made his stage debut at 6 playing Fritz in βThe Nutcrackerβ in his native Georgia.
βThat was my debut. I was spectacular,β he joked of playing the character who breaks the nutcracker. βEven at 6 years old I always liked the villain roles. I had a taste for it.β
In 2018, he played the Grinch in Augustβs production of βThe Grinchβ at Madison Square Garden; that show is still being produced nationwide, August said.
βScrooge and Grinch have a lot of similarities,β August noted.
βAbsolutely,β Hensley agreed in a three-way phone call during a break in rehearsals last week. βExcept for the giant green furry costume.β
βSame character, different costume,β August added.
βBut whatβs interesting in characters like Ebenezer Scrooge and Grinch and Judd Frye (the character Hensley played in βOklahoma!β that earned him the Tony), these guys are considered the villains, but there are elements of them that are so relatable to people,β Hensley said. βIf you can find those elements, it deepens your relationship with the audience. In the terms of Scrooge, we get to have a journey of redemption and people can relate to lost love, lost opportunity, miscommunication, fear. All these things that we as human beings go through daily and itβs part of these characters every day.β
Bricusse wrote the music and screenplay for the 1970 musical film βScrooge,β starring Albert Finney. In 1992, he wrote the book and score for the stage adaptation.
The version we will see on the Temple of Music and Art stage is based on that 1992 stage play with some fine-tuning including adding new songs and a new finale, August said. All of the changes were made with Briscusseβs blessings before he died in 2021.