‘A Christmas Carol’ is back with updated sets, more songs and new scenes

For its sixth production of “A Christmas Carol” in the past seven years, Forum Theatre Company is balancing the need to keep tradition with the artistic bend to expand and elaborate.

“From the very beginning, we never backed away from the seriousness, the dark side of ‘Christmas Carol.’ We kind of embraced it,” artistic director Kathryn Page Hauptman said. “The changes we’ve made now make it even more like Dickens. It’s not a light piece of fluff. There’s a lot in there about the way you treat people and your responsibility as a human in this road we all travel together to help others. It makes a very strong statement about that.”

Forum Theatre, which took a hiatus from the Charles Dickens classic last year to produce the world premiere of the musical “Christmas Letters,” includes familiar faces such as Karla Burns as the Ghost of Christmas; and Shaun Michael Morse as Scrooge.

But it also includes several performers new to the work, including Jen Bechter as the Ghost of Christmas Future, who transitions from a beggar woman; and Shanna Berry as the Ghost of Christmas Past.

“They come in with a fresh mind and they’re not imitating anyone’s performance,” said Morse, who co-directs “Carol” with Hauptman. “That’s been fun and challenging.”

Hauptman directed the first five productions of “Carol,” and said “I thought it was time to bring some new life into it. I think that’s always healthy. Shaun was the logical choice.”

Morris is playing Scrooge for the fourth time.

“He had some really wonderful ideas on making improvements and doing some dramaturgical work on it,” Hauptman said. “We started this summer doing new adaptations, new changes. It really started to take shape. It’s really exciting.”

Morris said he especially sinks his teeth into the character’s song, “Soliloquy.”

“There’s a lot of weight and meat to the role,” he said. “It’s kind of a monologue set to music. A lot of Scrooges are usually played older, and it’s usually a baritone range. This goes up there (vocally). … As long as I can sing a G, I’ll continue to play this role.”

Hauptman longed for her company’s own version of “A Christmas Carol” since she formed Forum seven years ago. She asked composer Paul Jackson for “a couple of carols” to add to the show, and he returned weeks later with a completed score.

“I was thinking much smaller,” she says now with a laugh.

Small changes were made from year to year, with the largest taking place this year. Several new characters are added, as well as three new songs. What was a 90-minute, no intermission show will now likely be an hour and 45 minutes or so, plus an intermission.

Hauptman and Morris said it’s clear to the ear that Jackson has been influenced by the likes of Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz and William Finn in his score.

“The musical composition is really strong,” Hauptman said. “It’s not like simple little carol-style songs. It’s a fully, well-thought-out musical with complex music in it.”

Morris added, “You hear some of those melodies every now and then … but all of the melodies are completely original.”

“His very lyrics are very smart, very poignant,” Hauptman said.

“He’s great with a rhyme too,” Morris added.

Forum’s leaders think their original work, especially Jackson’s score, is good enough to try to get it licensed for other companies to perform it worldwide.

“I don’t like to select things that are normal and ordinary,” Hauptman said. “I’d like something like this if I saw and heard it.”

Several other aspects make the Forum’s “Carol” unique, including ethnically diverse casting. Aaron Profit and his daughter, Brooklynn, play Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim.

“It got very colorful,” Aaron Profit said with a laugh. “I love that part of it, because that’s the world we live in right now with our neighbors and our church members.”

Other cast members include Larry Hartley (Marley), David Raephour (Mr. Fezziwig/Old Joe), Claire Wehry (Mrs. Fezziwig), Ted Dvorak (Fred) and Julia Faust (Belle).

In addition, the First United Methodist Church – whose Wilke Center the Forum has used as its home for the past year – is basing its Advent sermons this year on the theme of “The Redemption of Scrooge,” as a tie-in to the musical.

This story was originally published November 29, 2017 at 4:10 PM with the headline "‘A Christmas Carol’ is back with updated sets, more songs and new scenes."