A Chicago Christmas Carol November 29, 2008

Crown City Theatre Company is proud to announce the opening of their World Premiere Musical Adaptation of “A Christmas Carol.” This production takes Dickens’ novel and places it in the stockyards of 1908 Chicago giving the piece a Brechtian quality with music reminiscent of Kurt Weill.
Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm and 7pm.
In transplanting Dickens’ tale to the stockyards and street corners of 1908 Chicago (as portrayed in Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”) this new musical, “A Chicago Christmas Carol” is a powerful indictment of corporate America set against the background of the furious Chicago winter. As the wind howls across the city, we see the struggle of the poor in a very visceral way. We see Scrooge not as a cranky old man, someone to be laughed at and perhaps pitied, but as a man who holds the power of life and death in his greedy hands. His final conversion is not a happy turn of events, but a necessary re-alignment of how our society should conduct itself. With the current economic situation in our country and around the world, this production makes Dickens novel even more poignant today by reminding us of our not so distant past.
With an exciting new book and a score by William A. Reilly set to powerful lyrics by Gary Lamb, this new ‘world premiere musical’ is sure to have an effect on even the greediest of hearts. If you see any “Christmas Carol” this year, this is the one to see. Although some material might not be suitable for very young or sensitive audience members, it is sure to move, provoke and challenge your ideas of Dickens novel and remind you how vital and important this story remains.

Official Website: http://www.crowncitytheatre.com