A Christmas Carol - The Old Vic

I do recall there was a great EPK trailer of the original 2017 cast which the Old Vic used to promote the 2018 revival with for a brief time before they took it down. Shame, as I haven't been able to find that video again since! But I can't imagine a film recording being released while it is still on and returning each year - or at least the closest we'd have is the 2020 In Camera version.

But I'd be happy with just a cast album of the carols as Chris Nightingale's work on them is incredible (and Tony-winning let us not forget!), they sound beautiful and joyous.

I signed off my 2023 London theatre season with a trip to the Old Vic tonight. I’ve now seen this production 3 times now and I will say that for me it is still an absolutely beautifully crafted show from director Matthew Warchus and his team that has lost none of its magic since it first graced the OV stage 7 years ago. From walking into that auditorium and seeing all those lanterns and listening to the preshow music whilst enjoying a warm mince pie (I did grab one and very nice it was as well) to thd final bell ringing at the end, after 2 hours it leaves you with a warm heart and a big smile on your face as you walk out into the cold winter evening. With this show, there is something for everybody young or old. The Act 2 dinner scene is still so much fun, no matter how many times you watch it.

In my previous visits I never really focused on the musical score with this show, but with tonight’s viewing, I really loved the score from Chris Nightingale was it played out during the show and the beautiful singing as well. It really does add an extra emotional layer to the story. The lighting and sound design is still haunting and wonderful as ever.

With Chris Eccelston leading this year’s cast, I enjoyed his performance very much with a believable performance as the old miser. Seeing him up close from the side of the thrust stage section was an absolute pleasure and worth the ticket money. With many cast members making a return visit this year, this was a lively cast bringing Jack Thorne’s adaption to the stage.

Personally, I don’t think there is a better theatrical version of this classic Christmas story and is a great way to kick off the festive season.

Was there last night as well. Missed mince pies (sadly) this time but caught a tangerine instead
It’s an absolute joy of the show, all smiles and tears, from the two leads I’ve seen Stephen Tompkinson is still number one, yet Christopher Eccleston looks exactly like a Scrooge I always imagine and he will very soon own this part through and through. He also jumped down the stage and kissed my friend’s hand (she loved it) which gets him some extra points!
Good shape for the first preview, dinner scene is a show stopper! This really is the most heart warming show in town, you can’t fault beautifully sung carols and bells, I hope Old Vic will bring it again and again every year.

There were quite a few people at the stage door yesterday night, Christopher Eccleston stayed for everyone that queued up and was fine with pictures and signing programmes but was definitely trying to get through everyone quickly (don’t blame him it was freezing) he was the only cast member that stopped.

I don’t know exact timings but looking at the timestamps of my photos he was out about 10-15 minutes after the show finished, I don’t recall any specific rules regarding what can and can’t be signed, I imagine it’s up to him but I expect anything Christmas Carol related should be ok.

Does anyone know if this plans to return next year?

Loved this tonight!

Eccleston is softer and more vulnerable than you might imagine.

The show still works it's magic.

Some spoilers follow. . .

I love extremes, and contrasting extremes, so Rhys Ifans, the most jubilantly joyous effusive Scrooge, and Owen Teale, the most frightening, powerful and violently malevolent Scrooge, are my two favourites from the run so far.

Nonetheless, Eccleston is a memorable and distinctive Scrooge. He probably does himself a disservice by doing proper acting, as he abandons his brittle, cutting, colder Lancashire brogue (which might have served the setup of the character better) for a warmer, huskier, London received pronunciation type accent. The effect is to blunt the character's apparent meanness at the beginning, but at the same time, this sense of softness fits perfectly with his greyed, dessicated, shock-haired zombie appearance to create the sense of Scrooge as the walking dead, a man from whom life has drained away, a ghost of a man.

This then allows life to be breathed into his hollow husk over the course of the show, until at the end, life courses through him as he does a jaunty jig. For me, he is less transformed, as Ifans and Teale were, as resurrected over the course of the play, which is in its own less dramatic way, equally moving.

There is a kind of familial and familiar warmth about this year's revival, with returning players among the cast including Frances McNamee's Belle, Rose Shalloo's Little Fan, Alastair Parker's Fezziwig, Andrew Langtree's Marley, Geraint Downing's Young Scrooge and Julie Jupp's Ghost of Christmas Past; and of course, Shalloo is the sister of Jack Shalloo, who previously played Bob Cratchit, and Cratchit himself this year, Rob Compton, has graduated (triumphantly) from making the set in a previous year. This all makes for an easy Christmassy warmth.

One wonders if the success of this production is in part as an antidote to our modern reality whereby our Scroogelike politicians strive to mollify our Scroogelike souls by "decreasing the surplus population" of "small boats" (aka an "invasion") and threaten to withdraw from any human rights convention that might show such people a measure of consideration. Scrooge's transformation, coupled by those wondrous tinkling bells, seems such a soothing dream tonic before we wake once again to Scrooge's real world dominant reality.

Anyhow, I loved this production all over again today, and happily give it 4 and a half stars, just slightly behind my two aforementioned favourite versions of the project, and slightly ahead of some others.

Does anybody know if Christopher Eccleston shows up at the stage door after matinee performances?

Oh it's back next year

I'm sure there are plenty of actors who want to play Scrooge. My suggestion a while back was Shaun Evans although he'd be a lot younger than previous Scrooges. Peter Capaldi is another that comes to mind.

Peter Capaldi gets my vote!

Excellent reviews for this year's cast - four and five star.