LOUDONVILLE — A musical adaption of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” will make history at The Ohio Theatre as the first world premiere musical on Nov. 20.
The show features 12 original songs to be performed by some of the 63-person cast on stage at The Ohio Theatre, located at 156 North Water St., Nov. 20, 21 and 22 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 23 at 2 p.m.
Tickets range from $11 to 16 for adults, seniors and students, and admission is free for children age 4 and under, if space allows. Tickets can be purchased at The Ohio Theatre’s website or at the box office on the nights of the musical, if the show is not sold out.
The Sunday showing has already sold out the main floor, comprising 250 of the theater’s nearly 400 seats. The theater has sold a total of 700 tickets already.
Sally Hollenbach, the theater’s director, is directing the musical and playing the role of Mrs. Cratchit. She also founded the Arts Alive program in 2012 to create theater camps for kids.
Two of the seven camps involve creating a short musical, which has resulted in the creation of 15 musicals performed by the children. But she wanted to create something more substantial.
At the end of last year, Matt Young, who plays Ebenezer Scrooge, told Hollenbach he wanted to put on “A Christmas Carol.” By March, Hollenbach was on board.
“I said, OK, if we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do this right, and we’re gonna make this our own, and we’re going to create a musical,” Hollenbach said. “He had never even had that thought of turning it into a musical.”
What sets this version apart from the original story?
So, she pulled together a creative team to make it happen, which includes Young, Schuyler Hollenbach, Dennis Morgan, Deaunna Morgan, Emily Roblin and Lizzie Zink.
The team brainstormed to figure out the essence of the story, and how they were going to transform the book into a musical. Then they divided and conquered based on their strengths; for some it was writing the music, for others it was writing the script.
“We pulled out different aspects of the story that maybe people don’t always think about and have tried to make it fresh and new,” Hollenbach said. “We obviously have woven music all the way through it and that’s exciting.
“People who are in the show really seem excited to be a part of it.”
Some of those aspects include an expanded storyline detailing Scrooge’s past, Mr. and Mrs. Cratchit’s love story, and theology references, which Young said aren’t always super noticeable.
They worked on perfecting the musical until May, then Hollenbach shifted her focus to the kids camps, and by the end of September the team conducted auditions.
Young anticipated seeing the usual theater people at auditions, but beyond that he had no idea how many people would be interested in participating.
“Walking in on the first night, I saw all of the cars in the parking lot and I walk in, I see everybody lined up to audition and I got really excited,” he said.
Since then, the cast has rehearsed three times a week for three hours at a time.
“You know the story, but you’ve never seen it done like this before. You’ve never heard the songs. The script is different, the characters are our own spin on things. Don’t overlook it because you think you know it.”
Matt Young
Eventually, Hollenbach hopes to publish the musical and pitch it to theaters that might be interested, which could bring money back to The Ohio Theatre. But that requires some further steps, including turning the songs into sheet music format.
“You know the story, but you’ve never seen it done like this before,” Young said. “You’ve never heard the songs. The script is different, the characters are our own spin on things.
“Don’t overlook it because you think you know it.”