Review: ‘Estella Scrooge’ packages Dickens as a musical for pandemic times [Los Angeles Times]
Reworking one of the most famous Christmas stories for these pandemic times, the streaming musical “Estella Scrooge: A Christmas Carol With a Twist” breathes new life into Charles Dickens’ classic tale.
To create this “digital theater piece,” actors were filmed individually to allow for COVID-19 social distancing. The footage was then blended with animation, backgrounds and other imagery for a final project that blurs the line between theater and film, presenting something akin to a recorded Broadway musical overlaid with modest visual effects.
The story follows cold-hearted, money-driven Estella Scrooge (Betsy Wolfe), a CEO at Bleak House Capital, a company that declares in its opening number, “We care almost as much about you as we do your money.” Meanwhile, in Estella’s hometown of Pickwick, Ohio, Philip Nickelby (Clifton Duncan) runs the hotel Harthouse, which he has turned into a refuge for those in need. When Philip defaults on his mortgage, Estella travels to Pickwick to personally foreclose on the property.