Scrooge: The Musical is a 1992 stage musical with book, music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse

Leslie Bricusse

Leslie Bricusse is an English composer, lyricist, and playwright.Although best known for his partnership with Anthony Newley, Bricusse has worked with many other composers. He was educated at University College School in London and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge...

. Its score and book are closely adapted from the music and screenplay of the 1970 musical film Scrooge starring Albert Finney

Albert Finney

Albert Finney is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television....

. Bricusse was nominated for the Academy Award for the song score he wrote for the film, and most of those songs were carried over to the musical.

Synopsis

Like the film, the musical closely follows the plot of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

' A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...

, in which the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge

Ebenezer Scrooge

Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness...

 undergoes a profound experience of redemption over the course of a Christmas Eve night, after being visited by the ghost of his former partner Jacob Marley

Jacob Marley

Jacob Marley is a fictional character who appears in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.- Relationship with Scrooge:In life, Marley was the business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge. As teenagers, both men had been apprenticed in business and met as clerks in another business...

 and the Ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

Productions

The original production starred Anthony Newley

Anthony Newley

Anthony George Newley was an English actor, singer and songwriter. He enjoyed success as a performer in such diverse fields as rock and roll and stage and screen acting.-Early life:...

 as Scrooge and opened on November 9 1992 at the Alexandra Theatre

Alexandra Theatre

The New Alexandra Theatre, commonly known as The Alex, is a theatre on Station Street in Birmingham, England.Construction of the theatre commenced in 1900 and was completed in 1901. The architects were Owen & Ward. The theatre was opened on 27 May 1901 as the Lyceum Theatre on John Bright Street;...

 in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

. The cast also included Stratford Johns

Stratford Johns

Stratford Johns, born Alan Edgar Stratford-Johns, was a popular British stage, film and television actor who is best remembered for his starring role as Detective Inspector Charlie Barlow in the innovative and long-running BBC police series Z-Cars, created by Troy Kennedy-Martin.-Early life:Johns...

, Tom Watt

Tom Watt (actor)

Thomas Erickson "Tom" Watt is an English radio presenter, journalist and actor, who is best known for playing the role of Lofty Holloway in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.-Acting career:...

, Jon Pertwee

Jon Pertwee

John Devon Roland Pertwee , was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...

 and Jerome Wallington. The current UK production stars Tommy Steele

Tommy Steele

Tommy Steele OBE , is an English entertainer. Steele is widely regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star.-Singer:...

 in the title role.

The American premiere opened on October 26 2004 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. This production starred Richard Chamberlain

Richard Chamberlain

George Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...

in the title role.

It has also been performed by the Spring Lake Theater Company in Spring Lake, New Jersey, every Christmas season since 1982.

Musical Numbers

• A Christmas Carol
• I Hate Christmas
• No Better Life
• Christmas Children
• Christmas Joys
• Father Christmas
• Make The Most Of This World
• It's Not My Fault
• December The Twenty-Fifth
• Happiness
• You...You
• I Like Life
• Good Times
• The Beautiful Day
• A Minister's Cat
• A Better Life
• Thank You Very Much
• I'll Begin Again