Gaslight presents new version of classic Christmas story in Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol
Release Date: 10/27/2003. Expired: 12/20/2003
In Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge redeems himself after being visited by his dead partner Jacob Marley and three ghosts on Christmas Eve. But Dickens leaves Marley suffering in chains for eternity.
That prompted Tom Mula, an actor who portrayed Scrooge in more than 400 performances in a Chicago theatre, to write his own version of A Christmas Carol from Marley’s point of view and to provide an ending for what happens to him.
Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol is a hilarious and touching story that brings a new twist to a familiar Christmas tale. It will be presented in its regional debut in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre at The Renaissance Center Fridays and Saturdays Nov. 14-Dec. 20. It is being sponsored by LexaLite International Corp.
Dinner and the show are $27 per person with the buffet opening at 6:30 p.m. and the performance beginning at 7:30 p.m.
There also is a Senior Lunch Matinee at 12 p.m. on each Friday during the show’s run. Senior matinee tickets are $17 for patrons 55 and up.
“This bold, funny and deeply moving play tells the untold story behind the Dickens classic with warmth and infectious zest,” said Pacer Harp, managing director of the Gaslight Dinner Theatre and director of the show. “The story follows the familiar path to Scrooge’s redemption but then shows us what happened to Marley for all his efforts.”
An award-winning actor and playwright, Mula performed as Scrooge in more than 400 performances of A Christmas Carol at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. But at lunch after one of the shows, a friend’s daughter said she believes Marley “got a raw deal” by being left condemned in chains for eternity while Scrooge got a new chance at life.
After thinking about it, Mula agreed.
“Finally I decided to set right this injustice and wrote my own version of Scrooge’s redemption, in which Jacob Marley is, deservedly, much more center stage,” Mula said.
His 1995 book was a best seller, which he then adapted into a one-man play in which he performed as Jacob Marley. The one-man show has now been adapted into a full play in which the story follows Marley’s path to redemption.
Seven years after his death on Christmas Eve, Marley is in Hell, burdened with the chains of his miserly existence on Earth as Scrooge’s business partner. An imp called a bogle offers Marley a contract that could release him from his suffering and Marley signs without even reading it. Only then does he discover that his only way out is to change Scrooge’s heart.
He is reluctant at first, but learns fear and pity as he sets out to change Scrooge and, in doing so, changes himself.
“We all know about the ghosts that visit Scrooge on Christmas Eve and cause him to turn his life around, but this story goes beyond that point and tells us how Jacob Marley accomplished it and what happens to him afterwards,” Harp said.
The buffet menu for Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol includes turkey and dressing, giblet gravy, pork tenderloin with plum sauce, green beans, butternut squash, baby carrots, whipped potatoes, cranberry sauce, fresh fruit, sweet potato pie, peach cobbler, dinner rolls and tossed salad.
“The Christmas dinner theatre show is also ideal for private bookings for businesses and organizations to hold their holiday parties,” said LeAnn Polk, director of events at The Renaissance Center. “Groups of 25 or more can book a dinner theatre meal and show on weeknights in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre. This has proven to be very popular in past years and the available dates fill up quickly.”
For more information on booking a dinner theatre show, contact Polk at (615)740-5503 or .
For more information on Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre, call (615)740-5600. To make reservations for a public show or the Senior Lunch Matinee, call (615)740-5570 or visit the center’s box office at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.
Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.
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