Sherlock & Scrooge

Allen Gilmore (above, right) plays Ebenezer Scrooge in A Sherlock Carol, a holiday mashup of Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle now running in both New York (where Allen is) and London. A veteran Scrooge (having played him for many years at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago), Allen discusses how Ebenezer Scrooge is one of the great roles, comparing him to Leontes from Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale; how we stand on the shoulders of the Scrooges who’ve come before us; how the role is self-cleaning; how actors bring their own nasty to Scrooge; and how audiences recognize their nastiness in the character; and how the possibility of redemption is part of what makes A Christmas Carol so popular and enduring. (Length 18:30) (PICTURED: Drew McVety as Sherlock Holmes and Allen Gilmore as Ebenezer Scrooge in Mark Shanahan's A Sherlock Carol, directed by Jen Waldman. Photo courtesy of Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.)