A Brand New Holiday Musical
Hope you had a joyful Thanksgiving, despite all our new restrictions.
In keeping with the need to stay safe, while yearning for entertainment for the whole family, I want to tell you about a wonderful thing to do to kick off the holiday season. Watch Estella Scrooge: A Christmas Carol with a Twist, a brand-new musical, custom made for this time of year:
This is an updated version of the holiday classic, with a unique new plot line.
The book is by John Caird, with music and lyrics by Paul Gordon, and it is directed by John Caird.
Pivoting from a stage musical to a filmed presentation, the producers employed innovative technology to keep all actors and creatives safe from Covid.
This important note is posted on the show’s website:
When theater shuttered on March 12, 2020, no one could have predicted that stage doors would be locked and onstage works would cease, for a term of time that no one could have anticipated.
This past summer, we came together to see if we could re-imagine the process of realizing a musical theater production.
Knowing the challenges and restrictions that came with the arrival of Covid19, we assembled a team of award-winning creatives to bring Estella Scrooge: A Christmas Carol With A Twist to life, by digitally capturing the production in a unique and unprecedented way, one actor at a time.
We hope that the finished project brings vitality into a distressed industry and will inspire the exploration of new ways to bring the life-changing power of theater to all.
Estella Scrooge stars Betsy Wolfe, Clifton Duncan, Lauren Patten, Patrick Page, Carolee Carmello and Danny Burstein.
To view the exciting trailer:
Tickets to see the show are now on sale. Go to: https://www.estellascrooge.com/
You can hear my interview with acclaimed director and writer John Caird on this Sunday’s Bagels and Broadway radio show beginning at 2 PM ET.
Available on podcast following the broadcast.
Valerie Smaldone is a 5-time Billboard Magazine Award winner and is well known for her unprecedented success holding the #1 on-air position in the New York radio market on 106.7 Life-FM, an iHeart station. She has hosted, produced, and created several award-winning nationally syndicated programs featuring in-depth interviews with stars like Paul McCartney, Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Elton John and Mariah Carey among others. Her radio talk show "Bagels and Broadway" highlighted theatre and food personalities. She is an accomplished interviewer and voice artist heard on commercials, narrations, promos and audiobooks, as well as a sought after live announcer.
Most recently, Valerie produced and directed a film, The Thursday Night Club, featuring pop diva Gloria Gaynor in her movie acting debut. She is one of the creators and producers of a docu-series, Divine Renovation, starring Erik Estrada, on streaming networks soon.
