Triple Olivier Award-winning Robert Lindsay will take on the central role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the London Musical Theatre Orchestra’s concert staging of the 1994 Broadway musical reworking of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
Based on Dickens’ timeless tale of Scrooge and his ghostly visitors the show features music written by Tony, Olivier and eight-time Academy award winner Alan Menken, with lyrics by Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime) and a book by Mike Ockrent (Me and My Girl) and Ahrens.
Featuring the first London performance of the fully orchestrated score, the LMTO’s festive version of the show will play the Lyceum Theatre on 19 December.
Stage and screen favourite Lindsay will lead a star-studded cast which includes Fred Anderson (The Go-Between, Shaftesbury Apollo); Madalena Alberto (Evita, Dominion and UK tour); Carrie Hope Fletcher (soon-to-be-seen in the UK premiere production of The Addams Family); vlogger Giovanna Fletcher making her professional concert debut; Hugh Maynard (Sweeney Todd, Derby and Colchester); Peter Polycarpou (Follies in Concert, Royal Albert Hall); and Norman Bowman (Murder Ballad, Arts Theatre).
With patrons including Menken himself, Jason Robert Brown, Michael Feinstein, Julian Fellowes, Stiles and Drewe, and Stephen Schwartz, the LMTO features some of London’s most accomplished professional musicians who all share an enthusiasm for musical theatre.
The 32-piece orchestra conducted by founder and musical director Freddie Tapner is produced and managed by United Theatrical.
Originally programmed into a season at the Lyric Theatre, A Christmas Carol, which follows on from the LMTO’s recent critically acclaimed concert version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s State Fair, has been relocated to the larger Lyceum stage.
Menken and Ahrens’ A Christmas Carol was presented annually in New York from 1994 until 2003 with some of the biggest names in entertainment including F. Murray Abraham, Tim Curry, Jim Dale, Frank Langella and Roddy McDowell who all took on the central role of the ultimate Christmas killjoy. The production was adapted for television in 2004 with Kelsey Grammar as Scrooge and Jason Alexander as Jacob Marley.
Angela Thomas
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.