Written by orange• December 15, 2025• 7:03 pm• Anaheim, Musical, Review, The Chance Theater, Uncategorized

Scrooge! The Musical @ Chance Theater – Review

Photos by Doug Catiller.

Written by Daniella Litvak

Why do we love Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and all the adaptations it has spawned? Tradition, nostalgia, Muppets – yes, to all of the above. This classic story also reminds us – as Scrooge! The Musical at Chance Theater especially highlights – to like life even during the darkest of nights.

Scrooge! The Musical (hereinafter “Scrooge!”) was adapted from the 1970 film starring Albert Finney and Sir Alec Guinness. It does not stray far from the core of A Christmas Carol. Ebenezer Scrooge is the meanest, most miserable miser in Victorian-era London, England. One Christmas Eve, various – ghostly – spirits take Scrooge on a journey though the past, present and what is yet to come to remind him of the goodness and love within him he lost and what he stands to lose if he does not change his ways.

Bruce Goodrich plays Scrooge, and he is fantastic in the role. Since the image of Scrooge as the joyless buzzkill is so ingrained in our cultural memory, you can be forgiven for forgetting that he is actually a hilarious character. Goodrich’s performance won’t have you forgetting that any time soon. His delivery of snarky one-liners was perfect, and he was so fun to watch when he became increasingly drunk from the “milk of human kindness.” He was also good at finding the heart within the character. Corydon Melgoza was another standout performer. When he played Scrooge’s nephew, Harry, he could go toe to toe with Goodrich. As a younger Scrooge, it was heartbreaking to see the sweet man who fell in love with Isabel (Sophie Sonntag) become cold and mean. Overall, the cast did a really good job, and were especially delightful during party scenes.

The stage had a rustic, Victorian vibe. Multiple screen projections framed the stage. Using the projections to display pages from A Christmas Carol was a fantastic. However, when it came to the darker supernatural sequences, the stage design was less successful. The chain projections looked like 90s video game graphics, same with the Jacob Marley projection on the door. It did not fit the tone of the show. I wish there had been more practical set pieces.