Contact: Jim Byk | Shane Marshall Brown
ESTELLA SCROOGE
Producers Michael Jackowitz of Witzend Productions, David Bryant and Michael Alden, in partnership with Streaming Musicals, are pleased to herald the arrival of a new holiday musical tradition with the World Premiere of Estella Scrooge: A Christmas Carol with a Twist.
Estella Scrooge was the first fully-realized musical to be filmed in virtual production. The project was planned and digitally captured entirely during the pandemic, utilizing cutting-edge technology. This dazzlingly cinematic musical theatre adventure was filmed using green screen while employing strict social distancing practices, with hundreds of images, animations and digital environments blended in post-production with the footage of the actors to bring the story magically to life.
Estella Scrooge features a book by Tony Award winner John Caird (Les Misérables, Nicholas Nickleby) and Tony Award nominee Paul Gordon (Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice), music and lyrics by Gordon and direction by Caird.
A modern day take on Charles Dickens’ beloved 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, Estella Scrooge also wittily incorporates characters and plot lines from Dickens’ other great novels, Great Expectations, Little Dorrit and Bleak House, among others.
Betsy Wolfe (Waitress) stars as Estella Scrooge, a descendent of her famous great great great great grandfather Ebenezer. Clifton Duncan (The Play That Goes Wrong) stars as Philip ‘Pip’ Nickleby. 2020 Tony Award winner Lauren Patten (Jagged Little Pill) stars as Dawkins. The production also stars Tony Award nominees Patrick Page (Hadestown) as Mr. Merdle, Carolee Carmello (Parade) as Marla Havisham and Danny Burstein (2020 Tony Award winner, Moulin Rouge!) as Ebenezer Scrooge.
Estella Scrooge (Wolfe) is a young Wall Street tycoon with a penchant for foreclosing. A hotelier in her hometown of Pickwick, Ohio has defaulted on his mortgage and Estella fancies the idea of lowering the boom personally. Arriving at Harthouse on Christmas Eve, Estella discovers that the defaulting party is her childhood sweetheart, Pip Nickleby (Duncan). A good and generous soul, Pip has transformed the property into a refuge for the sick, dispossessed and homeless. A freak snowstorm forces Estella to take refuge. That night, just as it happened to her ancestor Ebenezer, she is haunted by three visitations…and oh, what uninvited houseguests they are!