Trivia / A Christmas Carol: The Musical

• Acting for Two: The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future have earthly forms, a lamp lighter, a charity show barker, and a blind begger, respectively.
• Blooper: When Scrooge meets Marley and doubts he's real, the second time he pokes him you can see his hand move back, but the shot immediately after shows him pulling his hand back again.
• California Doubling: The film was shot in Budapest, Hungary.
• Creator Couple: Camille Grammer, the executive producer for the TV adaptation, was married to Scrooge's actor Kelsey Grammer at the time of production. They have since divorced.
• Corpsing: The part where the Ghost of Christmas Present sings along with the others at Fred's house was ad-libbed, and Kelsey Grammer looks ready to start laughing, but he manages to save the take.
• Cut Song: The film cuts out the "Money Montage" song, turning it into dialogue.
• Dawson Casting: Nine-year-old Jacob Moriarty plays six-year-old Tiny Tim.
• Executive Meddling: In a positive example, Grace Smythe being added to the audience in "Abundance and Charity" was at the suggestion of an NBC producer, with the end result turning out meaningful.
• Fake Brit: The cast is a mix of Hungarians, Ukranians, Americans, and Britons.
• Self-Adaptation: Lyricist Lynn Ahrens wrote the TV adaptation of the 1994 musical.
• Stunt Casting:
  • After the Madison Square Garden world premiere staging in 1994, in which Scrooge was played by Walter Charles, it became tradition to cast a bigger-name performer as the lead in subsequent seasons, helped by the fact that it was a limited-run show and didn't take up much of their time. Over the following decade, he was played by (among others) Tony Randall, F. Murray Abraham, Tim Curry, Roger Daltrey, and Jim Dale.
  • One season hyped up Broadway veteran Ben Vereen as the Barker/Ghost of Christmas Present. Ken Page would also play the role alongside Hal Linden as Scrooge.
  • In the film version, Emily (Scrooge's lost love) is played in a bit of a One-Scene Wonder (OK, two scenes, but one is very short) by Jennifer Love Hewitt.
• Throw It In!:
  • One of the drunken men in "Christmas Together" slips while singing a line, which was an accident left in the film.
  • The part where the Ghost of Christmas Present sings along with the others at Fred's house was ad-libbed. They left the take in the movie.
  • The turkey boy's hat wasn't supposed to fly off his head when Scrooge drags him inside, but they ran with it and had Scrooge return his hat for him.

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