A message from Michael Grady

 

By the time Matthew Wiener asked me to co-author this adaptation of A Christmas Carol, I was already a grizzled Carol veteran. 

I’d played several Freds, 3rd and 4th Londoner, and the most disturbing Fezziwig dancer you’ll ever see. In all that time, I never lost my love for this story. In our dark moments, we are all Scrooge, and it feeds our souls to follow him back to the light.

After all those productions, I knew every trick this story could offer. But this year, A Christmas Carol returned out of nowhere, like a particular ghost I know, to teach me about the power of redemption.

You’re seeing A Christmas Carol because of the transcendent genius of Charles Dickens, but you’re seeing this particular Carol largely because of Alan Ruch, the gifted Phoenix composer who translated Dickens’s themes into music that captured all the wit, crackle and emotion of Scrooge’s journey.

Alan was The Phoenix Theatre Company’s longtime Resident Music Director. It’s weird now, thinking all that marvelous music came from the smart aleck at the back of the rehearsal room. Alan had a sharp wit and a grin out of ‘Cat in the Hat,’ but as a composer, he was watchful and soft-spoken. He’d say, ‘let me work with this,’ and come back with something wonderful. 

Matthew and I had such a great time shaping Dickens’s story and Alan’s music – I wish all of you the chance to work with such partners!

It premiered at the Actors Theatre of Phoenix, where it was titled “A Carol Sung in the Key of Joy” and took its final bow in 2010. When Alan passed away suddenly, without leaving a score behind, we mourned the loss of an artist and a friend and believed the curtain had rung down on this production forever.

But people kept talking about the music.

Matthew would hear it from local audiences, I would hear it from the talented local actors who’d graced the roles, Former Fezziwigs; ghosts of Carols past; Tiny Tims (no longer tiny) who treasured the experience, and every memory always built to, “remember this song…?”

This is one of the miracles of local theatre. When we tell our community a story, they remember both the tale and the tellers. After the show had closed — after the theatre had closed — Alan’s music played on, in the hearts of those who remembered. 

Artistic Director Michael Barnard, gathered us last winter and asked: “What would it take to restore Alan’s score and stage this production again?”

So here we are. With diligent logistical work from The Phoenix Theatre Company, heartfelt creative reconstruction from composer Craig Bohmler, and a joyous journey of reclamation and refurbishment from Matthew and myself, a group of talented artists are poised behind the curtain to share this Carol once more. 

To me, it’s a lesson that nothing meaningful ever really dies, and that anything is possible – especially at Christmas time.

 

Event Details    

What:A Christmas Carol
When: November 26 – December 28, 2025
Where: The Phoenix Theatre Company, Dr. Stacie J. and Richard J Stephenson Theatre, 1825 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85004
Tickets: Available at www.phoenixtheatre.com or by calling the Box Office at (602) 254-2151 

Click here for a PDF of the full article.

 

Alan Ruch was an award-winning theatre composer and lyricist and served as the longtime Resident Music Director for The Phoenix Theatre Company. He enjoyed collaborations with such artists as Michael Feinstein, Dick Van Dyke, Lucy Arnaz and Debbie Allen. He appeared at The Rose Tattoo, The Gardenia and The New York Co. in Los Angeles, and even worked as the Ragtime piano player at Knott’s Berry Farm.

Michael Grady is a playwright, novelist, and columnist whose work has appeared on stages across the country, including the Kennedy Center, Actor’s Theatre of Phoenix, and The Purple Rose Theatre. He co-wrote the book for the Friedl Dicker-Brandeis musical A Beautiful Place, with Linda DeArmond; and wrote the book for Dreamers of the Day, Arizona Theatre Company’s musical adaptation of Studs Terkel’s American Dreams: Lost and Found. His first play, Dancers, won the American College Theatre Festival’s National Collegiate Playwriting Award, and was published by Samuel French. Other plays include Yesterday’s Hero, White Picket Fence and The Harmony Codes, which was selected for the Sundance Playwright’s Lab. He has a bachelor’s degree in Theatre from Michigan State University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona. His works have been performed at the Kennedy Center, the Organic Theatre (Chicago), Actor’s Theatre of Phoenix, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Childsplay and The Purple Rose Theatre (Michigan). His first novel, Breaking Ball, was published in 2021. A former columnist for The East Valley Tribune, Mike’s works have appeared in Phoenix Magazine and The New Times, and his short story, The Brand Police, is currently featured in the online journal, The Thieving Magpie. He lives in Prescott with his wife, Linda.