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With most events, concerts and festivals canceled or pivoting online
, please consider contributing to your local arts organizations or to individual artists and performers.
L.A. County s new safer at home order went into effect on Nov. 30. Check the status of any drive-through events listed before heading out as the new safety measures only allow occupants in each car from the same household.
Watch a modern retelling of
A Christmas Carol. Catch livestream concerts from Fleet Foxes Robin Pecknold, the Blind Boys of Alabama and Dustbowl Revival. Grab the popcorn and watch Christmas movies at the drive-ins. Attend the 61st annual L.A. County Holiday Celebration virtually this year.
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For decades, “A Christmas Carol” has been amongst the most produced plays in the United States. Obviously, the popularity of the show meant significant revenues for the producing companies, which have disappeared along with live audience members. Talk about a Humbug situation.
Now dependent on digital platforms, theater companies are streaming productions of the popular Christmas tale. Some have small fees; some offer the product free and ask for a donation, and a few are expensive. All hope, that “A Christmas Carol” will help their patrons will feel connected to the organizations that kept a tradition alive.
Besides being a timeless tale of redemption and showing how happiness is directly related to living a good life, there are practical reasons for the popularity of “A Christmas Carol.” One is expenses. Besides not having to pay a royalty to Charles Dickens many adaptations have been created using a minimum of performers.
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