The timeless tale of Ebenezer Scrooge comes to thrilling new life as Tony Award® winner Jefferson Mays (I Am My Own Wife, Gentleman’s Guide…) plays over 50 roles in a virtuosic, master class of a performance that must be seen to be believed. This theatrical achievement comes from the haunting and hope-filled vision of one of Broadway’s most imaginative directors, Michael Arden (Tony-winning Best Revival – Once on this Island).
Creepy and antic, gloomy and giddy, Michael Arden's production capitalizes on every trick in Dickens's story and then pulls a few new ones out of Scrooge's top hat. Peace on earth? Mercy mild? Please. There are moments when you would swear that Mays couldn't possibly be unaccompanied, so raucous is this 'Carol.' But he is, more or less. (Danny Gardner briefly joins as a wordless specter.) Happily, Mays - who has also triumphed in multiple roles in 'I Am My Own Wife,' for which he won a Tony Award, and 'A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder' - is a master of manifold parts. If he were left alone, without lights, sound, projections or Dane Laffrey's curving, swerving set, he might put across this fable even more convincingly.
The noir-like design for the show by Dane Laffrey, though, is really something, and its sudden visual tricks and life-affirming pleasures far exceed what most people would expect from a one-person show. Joshua D. Reid’s sound offers as visceral and riveting a sonic affair as any show currently on Broadway.
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