Consistently included among the Midwest's top-tier holiday events, Goodman Theatre's annual production of A Christmas Carol returns for its 31st season. Guided by sixteen years of experience with the production, Chicago actor/director William Brown returns to direct Tom Creamer's adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella for his third consecutive year.
Renowned Chicago actor Larry Yando plays Scrooge, following a critically acclaimed 30th Anniversary production debut in the role, and Ryan Cowhey (Elmhurst) returns for a third season as Tiny Tim. Also new to their roles this season are Major Curda (Wilmette) as Turkey Boy; brother and sister Matt and Caroline Heffernan (Chicago) as Boy Scrooge and Emily Cratchit; Laney Kraus-Taddeo (Park Ridge) as Belinda Cratchit; Monet Butler (Chicago) as Abbey; Tim Gittings (Chicago) as Topper, Lucy Godinez (Evanston) as Martha Cratchit; Anish Jethmalani (Chicago) as the Ghost of Jacob Marley; Matt Schwader (Chicago) as Fred; Bret Tuomi (Chicago) as Mr. Fezziwig; and Penelope Walker (Chicago) as the Ghost of Christmas Present. A Christmas Carol performances begin November 30 and run through December 31 in the Goodman's Albert Theatre. A complete performance schedule including dates, times and ticket prices appears at the end of this release. Harris Bank is the Major Corporate Sponsor and Aon Corporation and KPMG LLP are Corporate Sponsor Partners.
"Over the course of more than three decades, A Christmas Carol has had an astonishing impact on Chicago," said Executive Director Roche Schulfer, who was instrumental in initiating the production at the Goodman 31 years ago. "Not only has the production served as the entry point to theater for legions of young people, it has become an annual tradition for thousands of families. We are very proud to consistently deliver the premier holiday theatrical offering in our region-a first-rate, glorious production that has touched the lives of so many Chicagoans."
Throughout its history at the Goodman, over 1 million people have experienced A Christmas Carol-"a joyous present for the entire family" (Chicago Sun-Times), "year after year…the crown jewel of the holiday season" (Daily Herald), "the best show to get at the true meaning of Christmas" (SouthtownStar) and "ideal family fare, both heartwarming and spectacular in its familiar tale" (Chicago Tribune). Over the years the show has hosted six directors, seven Scrooges, 27 Tiny Tims, and nearly 20,000 "Bah-Humbug!"s. A Christmas Carol is the tale of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, who is opposed to holiday cheer and indifferent to the sufferings of the poor in Victorian London. Scrooge is visited by four ghosts who offer him the opportunity to sympathize with his fellow man. Dickens' famous characters include Scrooge's kind-hearted clerk, Bob Cratchit, and his family, including Tiny Tim; the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future; the merry-making Fezziwig couple; and the Ghost of Jacob Marley.
Director William Brown first appeared in A Christmas Carol in the late 1980s, when he portrayed Scrooge's infectiously optimistic nephew Fred; from 2002-2005, he donned the whiskers of Scrooge and last season he directed the 30th Anniversary production. Most recently Brown directed As You Like It at Writers' Theatre, where he also has directed Another Part of the Forest, Our Town, Arms and the Man, Rocket to the Moon, Misalliance, The Glass Menagerie and Incident at Vichy. At American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin, he has directed productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Night of the Iguana, The Matchmaker, Twelfth Night, The Cherry Orchard, Antony and Cleopatra, All's Well That Ends Well and Shaw's You Never Can Tell. At Northlight Theatre he has directed Lady Windermere's Fan, The Chalk Garden and his own adaptation of She Stoops to Conquer. For TimeLine Theatre Company, he directed Steven Dietz's Halcyon Days and Paragon Springs and Tennessee Williams' Not About Nightingales. Brown is the associate artistic director of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, where he most recently directed Heartbreak House. He has received a Jeff Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Henry Kissinger in Nixon's Nixon.
Since returning from a three-year run as Scar in the national tour of The Lion King, Larry Yando (Ebenezer Scrooge) has appeared in Nixon's Nixon, Bach at Leipzig and As You Like It at Writers' Theatre; The Two Noble Kinsmen and Cymbeline at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; and as Scrooge in the Goodman's 30th Anniversary production of A Christmas Carol. Other leading roles in Chicago include: Titus Andronicus at Defiant Theatre; The Tempest, Timon of Athens, All's Well That Ends Well, King Lear, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, Antony and Cleopatra and Two Gentlemen of Verona at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Travesties, An Ideal Husband, Ghosts, Electra, Measure for Measure, The Importance of Being Earnest and Travels with My Aunt at Court Theatre; Mother Courage at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Rocket to the Moon at Writers' Theatre; The Birthday Party and Eastern Standard at Apple Tree Theatre; and I Hate Hamlet and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at Royal George Theatre.
Yando's regional credits include Angels in America, Arcadia and Amadeus at Milwaukee Repertory Theater; Glengarry Glen Ross, Cloud Nine, Betrayal, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Six Characters in Search of an Author at Indiana Repertory Theatre; and Burn This, I Hate Hamlet and Private Lives at Madison Repertory Theatre. Yando has taught advanced acting classes at The Theatre School at DePaul University, Northwestern University, Columbia College, Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Classical Training Program and Act One Studio's Conservatory Program, and he serves as a verse/text coach at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Yando has been honored as Chicago magazine's Best Actor in Chicago and received DePaul University's prestigious Excellence in the Arts award. -- www.goodmantheatre.org
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