Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays (I Am My Own Wife, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder) breathes new life into the greatest ghost story ever told. While the heart of A Christmas Carol is evergreen, Mays brings fresh perspective to Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and the rest, playing every role in this whirlwind one-man show.
Tony Award-nominated director Michael Arden (Once On This Island, Deaf West’s production of Spring Awakening) creates a wildly theatrical and spectacular experience. This world premiere adaptation of a beloved story of redemption offers an early—and unexpected—start to the holiday season.
Brilliant and arresting the stagecraft surely is, yet it's the power emanating from the performer that makes the story coalesce into an emotional experience for the viewer. Behind the booming voice and the quicksilver transformations is an interpretive master, translating the most elemental human stirrings into a fine art.
The audience is transformed, along with Scrooge himself, from a world of darkness, despair and burden into a realm of glistening light and affirmation of hope.
Every moment is meticulously thought out by Arden, and the best part is that while the production is innovative enough to make one of the most well-known stories of all time feel like something you have never seen before, the beautiful message and uplifting ending that made it such a classic are still perfectly intact, sending the audience out into the Christmas season with warmed hearts.
Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays (I Am My Own Wife, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder) commands the stage breathing new life into the greatest ghost story ever told by playing all the characters in CHARLES DICKENS' A CHRISTMAS CAROL at the Geffen Playhouse through December 16, 2018. And even if you think you know the story or have seen it done onstage before, this whirlwind one-man show, directed with eye-catching brilliance by Michael Arden, is a wildly theatrical and spectacular experience not to be missed this holiday season thanks to its unique and thoroughly magnificent technical merits which will amaze, entertain and frighten you from start to finish.
In a generous, spirited performance, Mays starts onstage as Dickens, then plies his many skills to quickly morph into the story's young and old, male and female, earthly and spectral characters, as Dickens uses words and Mays uses his subtle vocal and physical shifts to bring each character to life.
Working in a tight circle of light in a creepy setting designed by Dane Laffrey and lit by Ben Stanton, Mays commands the stage from the onset and proceeds to dazzle with his storytelling gifts... Thanks to Mays and his talented team, this holiday show is one to remember.
We are giddy with delight every time something shifts. I felt my eyes shining throughout, and when I looked around, I saw the same expression on others: All of us looking like thrilled, expectant children. And isn't that the point?
This is a Christmas Carol you definitely don't want to miss. While, yes, it is a holiday show - it's also one of the best pieces of theatre you're likely to see this year. As to kids, it's scary so I'd say save it for the ten and older crowd.
But this “Christmas Carol” is genuinely scary because, following the lead of the novella, so much is left to our imaginations. Only near the end does Arden supply us with an occult figure. Throughout he takes a more Henry Jamesian approach, connecting the supernatural to the psychological.
I have a new favorite one-person show and, without a doubt, I have also seen the best production of anything presented on any Los Angeles stage this year. And guess what? It's that familiar old warhorse A CHRISTMAS CAROL in a jaw-dropping, fresh new world premiere production created specifically for the Geffen Playhouse starring the unearthly Jefferson Mays. Created with his wife Susan Lyons and wunderkind director Michael Arden, the genius Mr. Mays takes on nearly 50 different roles in this incredibly brilliant adaptation based on the edited version Dickens himself would use for public performances of his story.
What starts out as a simple out-loud reading soon turns into one of the Christmas season's most spectacular stage offerings. That it ends up quite possibly the most moving and inspiring A Christmas Carol I've seen is icing on the holiday cake.
Brilliant and arresting the stagecraft surely is, yet it's the power emanating from the performer that makes the story coalesce into an emotional experience for the viewer. Behind the booming voice and the quicksilver transformations is an interpretive master, translating the most elemental human stirrings into a fine art.
The audience is transformed, along with Scrooge himself, from a world of darkness, despair and burden into a realm of glistening light and affirmation of hope.
Every moment is meticulously thought out by Arden, and the best part is that while the production is innovative enough to make one of the most well-known stories of all time feel like something you have never seen before, the beautiful message and uplifting ending that made it such a classic are still perfectly intact, sending the audience out into the Christmas season with warmed hearts.
Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays (I Am My Own Wife, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder) commands the stage breathing new life into the greatest ghost story ever told by playing all the characters in CHARLES DICKENS' A CHRISTMAS CAROL at the Geffen Playhouse through December 16, 2018. And even if you think you know the story or have seen it done onstage before, this whirlwind one-man show, directed with eye-catching brilliance by Michael Arden, is a wildly theatrical and spectacular experience not to be missed this holiday season thanks to its unique and thoroughly magnificent technical merits which will amaze, entertain and frighten you from start to finish.
In a generous, spirited performance, Mays starts onstage as Dickens, then plies his many skills to quickly morph into the story's young and old, male and female, earthly and spectral characters, as Dickens uses words and Mays uses his subtle vocal and physical shifts to bring each character to life.
Working in a tight circle of light in a creepy setting designed by Dane Laffrey and lit by Ben Stanton, Mays commands the stage from the onset and proceeds to dazzle with his storytelling gifts... Thanks to Mays and his talented team, this holiday show is one to remember.
We are giddy with delight every time something shifts. I felt my eyes shining throughout, and when I looked around, I saw the same expression on others: All of us looking like thrilled, expectant children. And isn't that the point?
This is a Christmas Carol you definitely don't want to miss. While, yes, it is a holiday show - it's also one of the best pieces of theatre you're likely to see this year. As to kids, it's scary so I'd say save it for the ten and older crowd.
But this “Christmas Carol” is genuinely scary because, following the lead of the novella, so much is left to our imaginations. Only near the end does Arden supply us with an occult figure. Throughout he takes a more Henry Jamesian approach, connecting the supernatural to the psychological.
I have a new favorite one-person show and, without a doubt, I have also seen the best production of anything presented on any Los Angeles stage this year. And guess what? It's that familiar old warhorse A CHRISTMAS CAROL in a jaw-dropping, fresh new world premiere production created specifically for the Geffen Playhouse starring the unearthly Jefferson Mays. Created with his wife Susan Lyons and wunderkind director Michael Arden, the genius Mr. Mays takes on nearly 50 different roles in this incredibly brilliant adaptation based on the edited version Dickens himself would use for public performances of his story.
What starts out as a simple out-loud reading soon turns into one of the Christmas season's most spectacular stage offerings. That it ends up quite possibly the most moving and inspiring A Christmas Carol I've seen is icing on the holiday cake.
