Hawai‘i Children’s Theatre presents the musical “SCROOGE!” as its fall production. The musical, based on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” opens Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. with a three-weekend run at the Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall in Lihu‘e. It closes Nov. 25. All Friday and Saturday night shows are at 7 p.m. and Sunday matinees are at 4 p.m.
The musical score is by Tony, Grammy and Academy Award winner Leslie Bricusse. Ed Eaton (“Annie,” “Cinderella,” “Godspell” and “Willy Wonka”) directs, assisted by Bailey Hutton.
The set is designed by Ron Horoshko (“Cinderella,” “Peter Pan,” “Willy Wonka”) and built by Kit Alderete. Lighting is designed by Marc Sicignano, sound is engineered and executed by Steve Whitney and special (sometimes creepy) effects are by Marly Madayag (who directed “Peter Pan”). Musical direction is by Nina Saraos, assisted by Dolly Kanekuni and Broadway choreography is by Carol Culver.
This year, HCT welcomes a new stage manager, Heather Singleton, who brings years of theatrical experience, new costumer, Kathy Leonard, who will create and sew the Victorian era costumes, and artist Steven Kanekuni as props manager.
The story begins in the office of Scrooge (Jeff Demma) and his departed business partner, Marley (Ron Wood) on Christmas Eve. As the town prepares to celebrate the season, Bob Cratchit (Nestor Figeroa) is still hard at work in the cold room of his miserly employer and even a celebratory dinner invitation from his nephew (Mark Stein) and his wife, Helen (Dolly Kanekuni), cannot get Ebenezer Scrooge to join the festivities.
Scrooge instead visits the street vendors, Tom Jenkins (Ross Martineau), Miss Dilber (Bobbee Downs), Mrs. Dilber (Lolli Hagen), Bisset (Elijah Borales), Miss Carstairs (Tirah Brings), Bess (Jessica Palmer), wine merchant (Noah Cabello), Baker (Shirying Tay), Pringle (Emma Schneck), Punch and Judy man (Blade Kanekuni) demanding loan repayment.
When approached for a donation for the poor by Jollygoode (Ron Horoshko) and Harty (Talia Abrams) Scrooge is very “Bah Humbug!” indeed.
That evening, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his partner, Marley who sings “Make the Most of This World” (accompanied by several phantoms including Riley Silver) and also told of three additional ghostly visits on this night. The first ghost is from Christmas Past (Raina Silver) who sings to “Love While You Can” and takes him back to school as Young Ebenezer (Colter Belknap) with his little sister, Jen (Juliah Peck) and teacher (Donna Palmer) lead the children in “A Christmas Carol.” They then visit a very festive Christmas party he attended as a young man (Richard Taken) with friend Dick Wilkens (Bailey Hutton) at the home of his employers, Mr. Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig (John Cabello and Lana Coffman), where he meets his first love, Isabel (Corissa Berrett) and they sing of “Happiness” and all celebrate with the rollicking “December the 25th.”
Once home again and in bed, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Christmas Present (Bruce Fehring) who sings “I Like Life” (trying to get him to sing along!) and takes Scrooge on a visit to the poor yet happy home of Bob Cratchit and his wife (Jessica Silver), and children Kathy (Neva Burkhart), Peter (Isaac Dubey), Belinda (Julie Goldberg), Martha (Callie Yavinsky) and Tiny Tim (Caleb Plowman) who sings of his dream of “The Beautiful Day.”
Scrooge finds himself alone again, when the ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come appears and takes him to a day in the near future. The streets are alive with celebration as Tom Jenkins and all the townspeople and street urchins (including Beorn Chantara, Jonah Cabello, Chloe Rudinoff, Taj Gutierrez, Kathy Leonard, Sabrina Machado, Kristen Miyasaki, Lorna Navarro, Megan Nii, Kaylee Russell and Tani Schmitz) sing and dance in “Thank You Very Much!” We then follow Scrooge and the phantom ghost to a very much needed wake-up call and a joyous finale.
A benefit show, an HCT tradition, will be on Nov. 11 at 4 p.m. when all seats will be $6 with a food donation for the food banks. HCT also offers $25 tickets available for any Sunday matinee that will include VIP seating, a backstage tour, refreshments and souvenir beginning at 3 p.m.
For ticket information visit our website at www.hawaiichildrenstheatre.com or call the HCT office at 246-8985.
