A Christmas Carol

Renowned stage actor Allen Fitzpatrick presents his solo adaptation of Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.” Watch it live at Great Lakes Center for the Arts on December 2nd from 2 PM – 3 PM & 7 PM – 8 PM. Allen Fitzpatrick follows in the footsteps of Charles Dickens, who, a few years after writing the novella, began public readings of it, which he continued to perform until the year of his death.

This story has been represented in over a hundred stage, film, opera, and radio adaptations. In Allen’s version, audiences can use the full range of their imagination as one actor— on a virtually bare stage— creates 26 different characters. Audiences have been delighted by this approach’s personal, individual impact.

Dickens’ novella captures the zeitgeist of the mid-Victorian revival of the Christmas holiday, popularizing many aspects of Christmas celebration— including family gatherings, seasonal food and drink, dancing, games, and a festive generosity of spirit. And it shows how selfish, greedy men may redeem themselves. Its most important theme, however— all too relevant today— is to shine a glaring light on the mistreatment of the poor. Dickens wrote his novella in response to British social attitudes towards poverty. He was compelled to show the repercussions of ignoring the poor— especially children— in poverty.

Allen has spent 50 years on Broadway and professional theatre, working alongside notables such as Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Harold Prince, John Guare, and Marvin Hamlisch. He debuted on Broadway in Les Miserables; his other eight Broadway credits are Driving Miss Daisy (with James Earl Jones), The Scarlet Pimpernel, Damn Yankees (with Jerry Lewis), and 42nd Street. He was the stand-by for John Lithgow in Sweet Smell of Success, directed by Sir Nicholas Hytner. Allen shared an Emmy Award for contributing to Passion: Live from Lincoln Center, where he appeared opposite Patti LuPone. He starred opposite Petula Clark in Sunset Boulevard, with Keith Michell in Lloyd-Webber’s Aspects of Love and Marlo Thomas in Six Degrees of Separation. He was featured in several national tours and played a leading role in the premiere of Whistle Down the Wind, directed by Hal Prince.