A Hanukkah Carol Carves a Place Among a Crush of Dickens Adaptations
How the new musical, premiering at Round House Theatre, puts a contemporary Jewish spin on a Christmas giant (withou the Dickensian Orphan).
Some things about the holiday season are just inevitable, and when it comes to holiday theater, that something is A Christmas Carol. Adaptations of the Charles Dickens classic about a grouchy old coot getting scared into human decency by a succession of ghosts are so ubiquitous that American Theatre explicitly excludes them from its annual list of the 10 most produced plays of the season so as not to skew the numbers. No less than seven professional and community theaters in the greater D.C. to Baltimore area are staging some adaptation or deconstruction of the story, and a few— Ford’s, Olney, and Keegan among them—have been presenting their own, admittedly unique, versions for several years running.
As far as playwright and actor Harrison Bryan is concerned, too many iterations are missing something. “To be very frank, I have seen so many productions of A Christmas Carol, and I am always left wondering why it is not funnier,” he says exasperatedly.
Enter A Hanukkah Carol, or GELT TRIP! The Musical, a Jewish spin on the tale that, if the rapport between Bryan and his comrades is anything to go by, will certainly bring the funny during its premiere at Round House Theatre this month. Even on a Friday night in October, after a long day of rehearsal, the co-creators, director, and two of the show’s stars were quick to riff with me on everything from the World Series to the untapped commercial potential of Purim plays. “When there becomes a large commercial need for a Purim musical, we’ll let you know,” Bryan assures me.