God Bless You, Mister Scrooge

I've always felt a certain sympathy for Ebenezer Scrooge.

As villains go, he really isn't that bad. He doesn't steal, he doesn't murder, and he doesn't ask the government or anyone else to do either one for him.

In fact, there are qualities in his unreformed character that are downright heroic. He might be a little rough in his people skills, but remember this was a long time before How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Scrooge is all Wharton and no Stanford. That doesn't make a guy bad, just completely misunderstood by people who don't like numbers.

Frankly, Scrooge deserves better treatment than being scared into giving his money away.

At last he gets it. God Bless You, Mister Scrooge!: A pro-Capitalist Christmas Carol, is a play that asks important and long overdue questions:

Why is Scrooge so successful if he’s such a villain?

If Bob Cratchit is so abused, why doesn’t he get a different job?

Just what is Scrooge supposed to do about Tiny Tim’s crutch?

The New York Times says of the play:

"Janet Hopf actually elevates the old miser in her interesting “God Bless You, Mister Scrooge!,” in which the fellow who in Dickens is so easily manipulated by those ghosts is given a backbone. He debates economics with the apparitions, offers capitalism’s arguments against encouraging people to rely on handouts, and apologizes for nothing.

“My wealth is a measure not of what I take from the world but what I give to it,” he says. Jan-Peter Pedross is quite good as Scrooge, and Marley’s ghost (Marc Geller) is creepy as can be, making the already chilly La Tea Theater at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center on the Lower East Side even more so."

A few other comments:

"If I could see it, I'm sure I'd love it." Ayn R.

"No taxpayers were harmed in the making of this show."

December 4-20, Wednesday-Saturday, 8pm, Sundays at 3pm.

La Tea Theater
Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center
107 Suffolk Street, Second Floor
New York

Tickets $10 in advance, available at Theatermania.com
$15 at the door