A Christmas Carol: The Musical at The Lowry – Review

Last Updated on 13 December 2024 by Colette

This post features gifted experiences

This Christmas, the classic Dickens story of A Christmas Carol is brought to life by Hope Mill Theatre in this musical version. Breathing new life into the classic tale of A Christmas Carol (which, it might be worth noting, is a common GCSE text and one Ben is studying so of course I made plans to take him!), this performance sees the role of Scrooge played as a woman – Evelina Scrooge – and explores the reasons for her penny-pinching, miserly behaviours inspired by tales of Victorian businesswomen (who of course were few and far between).

First published in 1843, Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol is a timeless story which has been adapted, reimagined and retold over and over again. As such, Ben described A Christmas Carol: The Musical at the Lowry this Christmas as “heavily inspired” by the original story rather than a performance of the original tale.

I rather felt we had two very different experiences of watching A Christmas Carol: The Musical – there’s me who knows the gist and structure of the story as well as the next man but hasn’t watched any version of it, Muppets or otherwise, in years and then there’s Ben who is chest deep in GCSE English Literature, knows huge chunks of the text by heart, and has analysed it to death. I should also add that the poor lad hates musicals so I may have not told him about that bit until we were sat in our seats….

The Hope Mill Theatre’s Christmas Carol is performed in the Quays Theatre which is super intimate and with the show running for 90 mins straight through with no interval, this just adds to the intensity of the experience.

I’m going to assume you know the basic story of A Christmas Carol (Scrooge, ghosts of Christmas past, present and yet to come – you know the drill). This is a story of the power of human connection, of kindness and of generosity with lessons on compassion and and the power of self-reflection – it’s never too late to do better, to be better.

As I’ve mentioned, this version of A Christmas Carol sees the role of Scrooge performed as a woman – a miserable, tight-fisted spinster who sees no joy in the festive season and makes no attempt to hide her misery. In fact when others are brave enough to ask her for help, she makes it clear that their needs are “nothing to do with me” suggesting that workhouses, prisons or perhaps death (with the added bonus of reducing the population) would be an appropriate solution to their struggles.

The arrival of the ghost of Marley (Scrooge’s long since dead business partner) shocks and scares Scrooge who of course believes she is having some sort of fever-dream thanks to the cold she has picked up or something she has eaten – Ben was pleased they had used one of his favourite lines, “There’s more gravy than grave about you, whatever you are!”. Marley drags himself around the stage draped in the chains of his own making – chains that symbolise his greed in life – singing “Link by Link” (which references the quote, “I made it link by link, and yard by yard” from the original text) to forewarn Scrooge of what lies ahead if she doesn’t change her ways.

The Ghost of Christmas Past, was completely unhinged. I found her costume a little jarring (with the styling and fabrics feeling too modern for the rest of the play) and the character shrill and shrieky but interestingly Ben said he’d have liked her to be even more bonkers. The long red hair and shrieky nature was rather Kate Bush-esque I felt but Ben appreciated the red hair as a nod to the candle-like description of the Ghost of Christmas Past in the original text.

We both absolutely loved Mr Fezziwig’s Annual Christmas Ball – this completely over the top celebration was a riot of music and dance, a real joy to watch and reminded Scrooge of just how much of an impact your employer can have on your life. She resolves to be kinder to her employee Bob Cractchit.

Our favourite ghost in this musical retelling of A Christmas Carol was The Ghost of Christmas Present who was represented as a traditional pantomime dame and brought some much needed light relief and humour to proceedings along with a troupe of sequin bedazzled, feather-fan wielding dancers. Ben was particularly amused by Scrooge’s comment of, “I’ve never seen anything of the likes of you before” and the ghost replying, “I know!“

The final ghost, The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, wearing a long black gown and veil, moves silently and ominously around the stage, allowing Scrooge to come to her own conclusions about what she is seeing and what she can do to change the course of not just her own future but of those around her.

A Christmas Carol: The Musical brings everything you’d expect from a musical with lots of singing and dancing – huge choral numbers with spectacular choreography including ballet, dancing on tables and lifts. The whole performance is real feast for the eyes and I loved the “musical” element of it but Ben steadfastly said he didn’t like that and would have much preferred a more straightforward performance – of course this is fine, he’s 15 and musicals really aren’t his thing. It would be no good if we all liked the same things would it?

The scenery was mostly fairly basic and in keeping with the drab, colourless mood of both Scrooge and the Victorian era in which the story is set. Hope Mill Theatre make use of a projected backdrop to inject colour as necessary or to show a huge clock moving through the hours of Christmas Eve. A door and street lamps are expertly moved around the stage to signal new scenes etc but with so many performers on stage, props and scenery were definitely not your main focus.

I must give a special shout out Team Holly – Joel Tennant as Tiny Tim, Jett Moises as Jonathan, Harmony-Raine Riley as Grace and especially to Marnie Fletcher playing Scrooge as a child and also the Anderson Child – she was an absolute joy to watch with a gorgeous voice and clearly loving life on stage.

Whilst I was able to let the familiarity of this festive tale wash over me, Ben was much more invested in the detail, in elements of the tale that had been changed (not least that in this version Scrooge is a woman – ably acted by Claire Moore) and in important quotes and key phrases that he felt were missing or that had been altered to fit into songs. We discussed afterwards that with a story so well known, there are so many versions and retellings in much the same way we all know the basic story of Cinderella or The Three Little Pigs but every performance or book will be told in its own way, with its own twist. In that sense he didn’t feel that if was especially useful to his exams to have watched it however I said that actually, what it has done is show him how well he knows the text and which bits he feels are significant or impactful. We had some really interesting and detailed conversations about the performance on the way home and for a lad who claims not to really enjoy his English lessons, he has a lot of very intelligent things to say!

The Lowry website suggests an age recommendation of 6+ for this performance but honestly I’d be pushing that right out 11ish. The show runs for 90 minutes with no interval and is, in parts, quite intense especially with the arrival of the first ghosts. I really don’t think this is a performance for a younger audience.

A Christmas Carol runs from Friday 6th December 2024 to Saturday 4th January 2025 with tickets available to book online now; Book tickets for A Christmas Carol at the Lowry.

Have a read of these posts next:

Christmas theatre in Manchester this year

Our guide to the theatre in Manchester

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