JEFFERSON MAYS TO BRING HIS TOUR-DE-FORCE “A CHRISTMAS CAROL” TO BROADWAY THIS SEASON, DIRECTED BY MICHAEL ARDEN
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FOR RELEASE ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
TONY AWARD® WINNER
JEFFERSON MAYS
WILL BRING HIS WILDLY ACCLAIMED TOUR-DE-FORCE PERFORMANCE
IN CHARLES DICKENS’ BELOVED HOLIDAY CLASSIC
“A CHRISTMAS CAROL”
TO BROADWAY THIS SEASON
DIRECTED BY TWO-TIME TONY AWARD NOMINEE
MICHAEL ARDEN
ADAPTED BY
JEFFERSON MAYS, SUSAN LYONS, & MICHAEL ARDEN
PRODUCTION CONCEIVED BY
MICHAEL ARDEN & DANE LAFFREY
66 PERFORMANCES ONLY
AT THE NEDERLANDER THEATRE
PREVIEW PERFORMANCES BEGIN TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8
OFFICIAL OPENING NIGHT SET FOR MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21
TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW
New York, NY (September 7, 2022) – Producers Hunter Arnold and Kayla Greenspan announced that Jefferson Mays’ universally celebrated, one man virtuoso, tour-de-force performance in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol will be coming to Broadway this holiday season for a strictly limited 66-performance engagement at the Nederlander Theatre (208 West 41st Street). Mr. Mays, who is currently performing as Mayor Shinn ten blocks north in The Music Man, will depart that role on October 23rd.
“After everything we’ve been through in the past few years it seems fitting to tell the story of one man’s reflection and redemption on the Broadway stage” Hunter Arnold said. “In a time where the world needs each of us to look within and find our own best selves we are ecstatic to bring this iconic tale of metamorphosis and catharsis to audiences this holiday season.”
Preview performances for A Christmas Carol will begin Tuesday, November 8 with an official opening night set for Monday, November 21 in a strictly limited engagement through Sunday, January 1, 2023. Tickets for the production are on sale now at www.ticketmaster.com and can be purchased in-person at the Nederlander Theatre box office starting Tuesday, October 11. Group pricing for 10+ coming soon.
Production photos and video clips are available HERE. (credit: A Christmas Carol Live) with full permission granted for use.
In this A Christmas Carol unlike any other – past, present or future, Jefferson Mays plays more than 50 roles, including a potato, in a virtuosic, master class of a performance that must be seen to be believed.
Directed by the acclaimed, two-time Tony Award® nominee Michael Arden, adapted by Mays, Susan Lyons, and Arden, and conceived by Arden and Tony Award nominee Dane Laffrey, A Christmas Carol had a wildly acclaimed world premiere in 2018 at Los Angeles’ Geffen Playhouse. In the winter of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, producer Hunter Arnold released a special filmed version of the production as way for theaters across the country to raise money and bring the magic of A Christmas Carol to 84 partner theaters across the country.
Michael Arden commented, “I am delighted and humbled that this labor of love will be seen by New York audiences this Christmas. Jefferson is nothing short of extraordinary and I can’t wait for Broadway to witness his Dickensian tight rope act.”
In his New York Times Critic’s Pick review, Jesse Green raved: “A tour-de-force performance by Jefferson Mays. He is astonishing in Michael Arden’s riveting production. They make what was already a classic story feel new, while also making it feel as if it should matter forever.”
Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times echoed that “Mays is a rare gem under Michael Arden’s ingenious direction. He not only got me to see A Christmas Carol, something I’ve vowed never to do again, but he got me to rave about it. For true theater lovers, there can be no better gift this season.”
David Cote of The Observer enthused, “Mays is magnificent in Michael Arden’s and designer Dane Laffrey’s virtuosic blend of chameleonic craft and scenic dazzle. A Christmas Carol is miraculous as one virtuosic actor embodies all the sights, sounds, smells and mystery of Dickens’s timeless fable.”
And in The Hollywood Reporter Jordan Riefe said, “A Christmas Carol is a towering achievement! You’ve seen it before, but not like this. A personal best for Jefferson Mays who delivers an epic performance embodying 50 characters.”
“I love this story for celebrating our capacity for change and satisfying our yearning for redemption. Most of all, I love the menagerie of characters Dickens invented, and I’m excited to inhabit each of them. If that makes me a bit greedy, just call me Scrooge,” said Jefferson Mays.
The creative team for A Christmas Carol includes Dane Laffrey (scenic and costume design), Ben Stanton (lighting design), Lucy Mackinnon (projection design), Joshua D. Reid (sound design), Cookie Jordan (hair and makeup design), John Kristiansen (puppet design), Stephen Kopel (casting director), and Justin Scribner (associate director and production stage manager).
BIOGRAPHIES
Jefferson Mays (Performer, Adaptor) has appeared at the Geffen Playhouse in A Christmas Carol which took home eight 2020 L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Awards including Best Production of a Play (Large Theatre), Best Director of a Play, and Best Actor in a Play for Mays. Broadway credits are The Music Man, Oslo (Tony nominee), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (Tony nominee), The Best Man, I Am My Own Wife (Tony Award winner), Pygmalion, Journey’s End, and Of Thee I Sing. Off-Broadway, he has performed in Measure for Measure, Lydie Breeze, Quills, and many more. Regional credits include My Fair Lady, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Cherry Orchard, Tartuffe, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale, and Peter Pan. Film and television credits include “Julia,” currently on HBOMax, “Hacks,” “Perry Mason,” “Westworld,” “The Blacklist,” Joel Cohen’s Macbeth, Patty Jenkins’ “I Am The Night,” the Coen Brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Inherent Vice, Rebel in the Rye, I Am Michael, The Notorious Bettie Page, “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” “The Americans,” “Mildred Pierce,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Nurse Jackie,” “The Closer,” and “Dolley Madison.” Awards include Tony Award, a Helen Hayes Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, two Drama Desk Awards, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, and three Obie Awards. Mays received his B.A. from Yale College and an M.F.A. from University of California, San Diego. He is married to Susan Lyons. He dedicates his performance to the memory of his parents, Lynnabeth and Victor Mays, who first read A Christmas Carol aloud to him.
Susan Lyons (Adaptor). After graduating from Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art, Lyons worked extensively in theater, film, television, and radio, playing a wide range of leading roles with many of the major companies. She was awarded the Marten Bequest in 1993. Married to Jefferson Mays, she was associate director of the national and international tours of I Am My Own Wife.
Michael Arden (Adaptor, Director) began his theatrical career at age ten playing Tiny Tim in the Midland Community Theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol in Midland, Texas. His love for Charles Dickens’ text has run throughout his life, performing again several times in different roles, and led him, orchestrated by the incredible Geffen Playhouse artistic director and mentor Matt Shakman, to meet co-author and conspirator, Jefferson Mays. With him, he created this production for the Geffen and subsequently filmed a streamed version benefitting regional theaters across the country during the height of the pandemic in the Fall of 2020. He is humbled to now bring this production to Broadway with the singular Jefferson Mays and all the incredible artists and technicians – including his longtime friend and collaborator Dane Laffrey – on this reimagining of Charles Dickens’ masterpiece. Past directing credits include Deaf West Theatre’s Spring Awakening (Tony Award nomination), Once on This Island (Tony Award nomination and the 2018 winner of Best Revival of a Musical), American Dream Study, and ALIEN/NATION (with The Forest of Arden), Maybe Happy Ending, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Lincoln Center, The Pride, Merrily We Roll Along, My Fair Lady, and Annie at the Hollywood Bowl. Arden is a regular director for “The Conners” on ABC. His new production of Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Parade at New York City Center will open one week before performances of A Christmas Carol commence. 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. He hopes Scrooge’s visitations might inspire us all to lead more empathetic and benevolent lives. God bless us, everyone! Follow @michaelarden and @forestofardenco
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