Review Highlights: SCROOGE, THE MUSICAL - Arizona Theatre Company

Shuler Hensley and Cast
Photo courtesy of Arizona Theatre Company

highlights from local critics reviews - (click link at bottom of each review to read complete review)

Click here for more information on this production that runs through December 30

"offers a familiar journey through the well-trodden narrative of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." ...while the essence of the classic tale remains intact in this updated stage adaptation, Bricusse's score isn't that memorable. While this production keeps the period, setting, and main characters from Dickens' novel, it also makes a few weird changes to the names of the characters (some of which were also in the film) along with incorporating some strange creative elements that distract from the emotional connection that one would hope for from Dickens' story."  - Gil Benbrook, TalkinBroadway.com (click here to read the complete review)

"Director Matt August has staged “Scrooge” with merriment, gusto, and shimmering spirit as a large cast sing well, dance jubilantly, and become the town’s residents with passionate honesty.  August’s swirlingly fluid direction is aided by choreographer Spencer Liff’s period dances and further enhanced by Jason Ardizzone-West’s storybook theater design which sets the show in a period theater that greets the audience upon arrival and is then brought to life."   -Chris Curcio, Curtain Up Phoenix (click here to read the complete review)

"Those already familiar with the work as a live show may find themselves having to uncomfortably adjust to director Matt August’s new vision of the Bricusse musical....What is genuinely odd, however, is how the exchange of dialog between Scrooge and the phantoms is handled.  For the most part, the ghosts remain motionless upstage while Scrooge looks directly out across the audience, never physically facing them. We see what he clearly sees, but instead, they're behind him....The strength in the Bricusse telling of the Dickens classic is mostly in the finale sequence where Scrooge's redemption is fully realized."
 - David Appleford, Broadway World (click here to read the complete review)