"Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster..."
Is there another side to the sourpuss of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, even before his bonding-with-Tiny Tim transformation at the end of the play? Duane Poole (book), Kellen Blair (lyrics), and especially composer Larry Grossman sure hope so. Together, they produced Scrooge in Love!, a musical promising "winking humor and joyful original songs." (All the exclamation marks are quoted, not the responsibility of the writer.)
The world premiere is an unusual turn for 42nd Street Moon, in the business of reviving old Broadway musicals, not producing new ones. But it is in the company's Eureka Theater that Scrooge in Love! will be performed, from Nov. 25 through Dec. 13.
Meant to counteract the season's Nutcracker-Messiah ennui, this is a variation on the equally overdone Dickens parable with such uptempo songs as "Happier" and "I Love Love." The musical begins a year after the play's happy ending, with Scrooge still missing something from his life, and he is visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley and other helpful specters. They diagnose and remedy the problem: still an eligible bachelor - or something along those lines.
The problem, it seems, is the missed opportunity in Scrooge's youth, not pursuing Belle, who turns up in the Dickens play during the painful visit accompanied by the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Belle appears in many treatments of A Christmas Carol, but for some reason, usually under another name: in the 1951 Scrooge as "Alice"; in Mickey's Christmas Carol as "Isabel"; in the 1994 A Flintstones' Christmas Carol (we leave no stone unturned in deep research of the subject) as "Maggie" (who catches the Bedrock Bug before she can perform, so Wilma portrays the role instead); and Bella in the 2000 A Christmas Carol, the love interest of Eddie Scrooge, with whom she has a son named Marley.
The 42nd Street Moon production is directed by Dyan McBride, with Jason Graae in the title role - cast in numerous Broadway, Off-Broadway and Los Angeles stage productions, Graae's last 42nd Street Moon appearance was in the 2012 Little Me, in which he portrayed all seven men in Belle Poitrine’s vivid life. (That Belle was unrelated to the character in Dickens' story.)
Melissa Reinerston plays Belle, Elise Youssef is the Ghost of Christmas Past, Will Springhorn as the Ghost of Christmas Present, David Naughton plays both the Ghost of Christmas Future and Scrooges’ former friend Dick Wilkins. The cast also features Ryan Drummond as Jacob Marley, Anjali Blacker as Nora and Maggie, Michael Grasso as Tiny Tim, Brittney Monroe as Martha, Heather Orth as Juliana and Mrs. Fezzigwig, David Ryan as Peter and the Turkey Boy, Kalon Thibodeaux as Young Scrooge, Andrew Willis-Woodward as Bob Cratchit, Skye Violet Wilson as Mrs. Cratchit, and Tod Zoldan as Fred and Mr. Fezziwig. Musical direction is by Dave Dobrusky, choreography by Staci Arriaga.