Casting has been revealed for the upcoming European premiere of Dolly Parton's Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol, set to play Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall December 8–January 8, 2023, with opening night December 13. Adapted by David H. Bell, Paul T. Couch, and Curt Wollan, the musical features an original score by eight-time Grammy winner Parton and a book by Bell.
Robert Bathurst (Cold Feet, Toast of London) will lead the cast as Scrooge, joined by Halle Brown, Iona Fraser, Richard J Hunt, Vicki Lee Taylor, Olivier winner George Maguire, Ediz Mahmut, Sarah O’Connor, Christopher Parkinson, Minal Patel, Annie Southall, Carole Stennett, Danny Whitehead, and Mitchell Zhangazha. Daniel Lee, Alexander Quinlan, and Samuel Sturge will share the role of Tiny Tim with Elliot Marsden, George Menezes Cutts, and Dereke Oladele comprising the additional children's cast.
Dickens’ London-set ghost story is reset in the Great Smoky Mountains of Eastern Tennessee at the height of the Great Depression, where Ebenezer Scrooge is recast as the callous owner of a mining company town. A concert production of the musical was staged at the Ordway Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2018, and the work received its first full staging at Boston's Emerson Colonial Theatre in 2019.
The European premiere will be directed and choreographed by Alison Pollard, with musical direction by Andrew Hilton, scenic design by Scott Davis, costume design by Linda Roethke, prop design by Eleanor Kahn, lighting design by David Howe, and sound design by Richard Brooker. Casting is by Pearson Casting, with Fiery Angel Entertainment and Red Tail Entertainment producing.
For tickets and more information, visit DollysChristmasCarol.com.