Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (2022)

On Christmas Eve in 1843, a jolly man named Harry Huffman (Fra Fee) sings about his love for the holiday ("I Love Christmas").

He encounters his elderly uncle Ebeneezer Scrooge (Luke Evans) and his dog Prudence, but Scrooge manages to evade him long enough to decline giving any money to a charity and add in a debt owed to him by the local toy shop owner, Tom Jenkins (Giles Terera), who can barely afford medical treatment for his frail mother. Jenkins owed 25 pounds but asks for 2 more days to pay the debt. Scrooge adds another 25 pounds to the debt for the delay and the inconvenience caused to him. After returning to his counting house, he rudely declines an invitation to a Christmas dinner party from Harry and reluctantly lets his clerk, Bob Cratchit (Johnny Flynn), take the day off for Christmas the next day. Bob is underpaid by Scrooge (he deducts wages for any mistakes at work and also cuts his pay for taking a day off on Christmas) and lives in poverty with his wife Ethel Cratchit (Rebecca Gethings) and their many children, including Tiny Tim (Rupert Turnbull), who is seriously ill and cannot receive medical treatment due to being unable to afford it. Scrooge closes up for the night and goes to his usual Tavern for dinner. He and Prudence go home and Scrooge sings about his exasperation with Christmas ("Tell Me"). Once he gets home, he is soon haunted by the spirit of his former business partner and friend, Jacob Marley (Jonathan Pryce), who is forced to pull long, heavy chains around his soul as a penalty for the bad actions he made in life. He warns Scrooge that he will suffer a similar fate when he dies, (except his chains will be even heavier and longer) unless he changes for the better and has arranged for three visitors to come by his house to teach him how to be a better man. Once Scrooge is about to go to bed, he encounters the first visitor, The Ghost of Christmas Past (Olivia Colman) (an excitable shape-shifting ghost made of candle wax with a flame on top of her head), who proceeds to take him through his life before present where he was forced to work in a factory on Christmas Day as a child due to his father being in a Debtors Prison and being visited by his younger sister Jen (Jemima Lucy Newman) (who died in childbirth giving birth to Harry). When he was a young man and worked for a kind-heart businessman named Mr. Fezziwig (James Cosmo) and was once engaged to his daughter Isabel (Jessie Buckley) ("Happiness") before Jacob Marley partnered with him for a more financially-increased job and Isabel left him when she witnesses Scrooge and Marley shut down a baker family's shop (the baker is revealed to be Bob Cratchit's father) and him focusing more on his business than her ("Later Never Comes"), though Scrooge insists it was because both he and Isabel needed to be financially secure before they could be married. Scrooge then meets the next visitor, The Ghost of Christmas Present (Trevor Dion Nicholas) (a giant, fun-loving spirit wearing a giant green robe), who wants to show Scrooge how to live life ("I Like Life"). He shows Scrooge how Harry will spend Christmas. Harry loves his uncle due to being told of the kindness of Scrooge's sister Jen, who died giving birth to him. He then is shown how the Cratchit family will spend Christmas in their small home and poor health, but go forth in life with happiness, especially Cratchit's youngest son, the disabled Tiny Tim ("The Beautiful Day"). When Scrooge asks the Ghost of Christmas Present about Tim's fate, the Ghost replies saying that he would have to ask the next visitor. Soon, Scrooge meets the next visitor, The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who shows him a future where Tom Jenkins (the man who Scrooge had made pay large debts) leads a celebration of expressing gratitude to Scrooge ("Thank You Very Much"). At first, Scrooge thinks he's being praised, but Prudence soon finds out they are celebrating his death. Scrooge soon learns the truth himself after finding out that Tiny Tim has passed away and the Cratchit family are devastated. Upon seeing that only a few people have attended his funeral (including an elderly Prudence, who proceeds to abandon Scrooge's grave to parts unknown and a few men who are only attending because lunch was promised), Scrooge is also given an example of what Hell is like, and that is where he will go after death for eternity with heavy chains if he does not change his ways. Scrooge makes a vow that he will change for the better if it means that Tim will live on. The next morning, Scrooge has fully repented his greedy ways and proceeds to spread joy to his associates, like attending Harry's dinner, making Cratchit his business partner and erasing Tom's debt. He also promises Tiny Tim that he will be able to seek medical help with his father's pay rise. Scrooge then celebrates Christmas with his new assortment of companions. ("I'll Begin Again").