Bay Street Brings A New Scrooge To Audience

Bay Street Theater will present the 2018 Geffen Playhouse production of “A Christmas Carol” on Saturday, November 28, at 9 p.m. via On The Stage streaming services. Tickets are available at baystreet.org and are $50 per household, which includes unlimited viewing for 24 hours.

This is “A Christmas Carol” unlike any other — past, present or future. The timeless tale of Ebenezer Scrooge comes to thrilling new life as Tony Award-winner Jefferson Mays plays over 50 roles in a virtuosic, master class of a performance that one must see to believe. The theatrical achievement comes from the haunting vision of one of Broadway’s most imaginative directors, Tony Award-nominee Michael Arden, who returns to Bay Street Theater following his direction of the 2016 Mainstage production “My Fair Lady.” The work is a one-man adaptation by Mays, Arden and Susan Lyons, based on Charles Dickens’s novel. The production was conceived by Arden and Dane Laffrey.

Other participating theater venues hosting the streaming premiere are La Jolla Playhouse, Actors’ Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, Iowa Stage Theatre Company, Sankofa Collective, South Coast Repertory, Shea’s Performing Arts Center, Springfield Contemporary Theatre, Theatre Tallahassee, and Vermont Stage. Ticket sales go toward supporting all partner organizations.

Jefferson Mays’s Broadway credits include “Oslo,” “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” “The Best Man,” “I Am My Own Wife,” “Pygmalion,” “Journey’s End” and “Of Thee I Sing.” He is married to Susan Lyons.

Michael Arden began his theater career at age 10 playing Tiny Tim in the Midland Community Theatre’s production of “A Christmas Carol” in Midland, Texas. Past directing credits include Deaf West Theatre’s “Spring Awakening” (Tony nomination), “Once on This Island” (Tony nomination and the 2018 winner of Best Revival of a Musical), “American Dream Study” and many others. He is the founder and a company member of The Forest of Arden, a collective of artists who create site-specific, immersive and inclusive new forms of theater.

After graduating from Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art, Susan Lyons worked extensively in theater, film, television and radio, playing a wide range of leading roles with all the major companies. She was awarded the Marten Bequest in 1993. Married to Jefferson Mays, she directed him in the national and international tours of “I Am My Own Wife.”