Chance Theater's 'Scrooge! The Musical' Opens Casting for Anaheim Stage Production This Fall

Chance Theater in Anaheim, California is moving forward with a full stage production of "Scrooge! The Musical," the beloved Leslie Bricusse adaptation of Charles Dickens' immortal holiday classic, with a production window running from October 23 through November 26, 2026. The show is currently in casting and pre-production, which means the hiring pipeline is open right now for performers, production staff, and theater technicians looking to land a holiday-season engagement at one of Southern California's most respected intimate theater companies.

At the helm is director James Michael McHale, who brings a strong regional theater sensibility to the project. Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen, who has been a driving creative force at Chance Theater for years and whose work has helped establish the company as a destination for ambitious, emotionally rich productions, is overseeing the production at the organizational level. Rounding out the core creative leadership is Musical Director Lex Leigh, whose role will be central given the score's demands. The material itself is rich: Leslie Bricusse's book, lyrics, and music for "Scrooge!" originated with the 1970 film musical starring Albert Finney, for which Bricusse received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score. The stage adaptation carries that same catalog of songs into the theater, including fan favorites that audiences tend to know by heart. Casting Director Elvira Herrera is leading the search for the company, and performers and their representatives would do well to get on her radar immediately.

Chance Theater occupies a distinctive place in the Southern California theater ecosystem. Based in Anaheim and operating out of the Bette Aitken Theater Arts Center, the company is known for producing musicals and plays with a level of craft and ambition that punches well above the scale of its intimate venue. The company has earned a strong reputation for nurturing new works alongside beloved classics, and its productions frequently draw from the deep talent pool that greater Los Angeles and Orange County have to offer. For theater professionals in the region, a Chance Theater credit carries genuine weight, and their holiday productions in particular tend to be audience favorites that extend beyond a typical subscriber base.

The production runs entirely in Anaheim, staged at the Chance Theater facility itself. For local theater technicians, stage managers, scenic and costume designers, and production staff based in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas, this is a geographically convenient engagement without the commute demands of a downtown LA production. The October 23 opening suggests that rehearsals will likely begin in late September or early October at the latest, meaning department-level conversations are probably already underway or will be within the coming weeks. Anyone interested in a design, technical direction, or stage management role should be making contact now rather than waiting.

"Scrooge! The Musical" is, by its nature, a production with specific and significant departmental needs. Victorian London period design means the scenic and costume departments will carry a heavy creative load, with detailed period-accurate environments and a large cast of characters requiring coordinated wardrobe across multiple scenes and ghost sequences. Lighting design will be particularly important given the supernatural elements and the tonal range of the show, which swings from the cold gray of Scrooge's counting house to the warmth of the Cratchit family's hearth to the spectral atmospherics of the three ghost sequences. A show of this scope, with a full musical score and the holiday audience expectations that come with the Dickens source material, will require a tight, experienced production team to deliver on all fronts.

For the full production listing, including contact information, office details, and the complete crew roster as it develops, head to ProductionList.com and search "Scrooge! The Musical." The casting process is active now, and pre-production conversations for key technical and design roles are in all likelihood already in motion. If this production is on your radar, the time to reach out is before the roles are locked, not after. Bookmark the listing and check back regularly as the team fills out in the months ahead.

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