OPEN EYE MAINSTAGE: Theatre / Puppetry / Music
Open Eye Theatre presents
SCROOGE IN ROUGE
An English Music Hall Christmas Carol
Nov. 28 - Dec. 28, 2025
Created by Ricky Graham, Jeffery Roberson & Yvette Hargis
Original music by Jefferson Turner
Celebrate the season with a Christmas Carol turned holiday boilermaker – a raucous, drag-fueled extravaganza with outrageous costumes, sassy lyrics, and side-splitting performances guaranteed to get your spirits soaring!
Open Eye’s new holiday tradition is back…for the 3rd year!
Some versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol are like hot toddies: traditional, sweet, and heartwarming. Open Eye Theatre’s musical holiday offering, SCROOGE IN ROUGE, is like a boilermaker: a raucous holiday celebration spiked with campy drag, “Naughty List”-worthy lyrics, and deliciously over-the-top performances calibrated to instantly kick the audience into higher spirits!
The Royal Music Hall Twenty-Member Variety Players’ production of A Christmas Carol is in a pickle after seventeen members of the company suddenly fall ill. This leaves the three remaining members to plow on (so to speak) through a musical performance of the Dickens classic. Expect missed cues, unfamiliar characters, and costume mishaps aplenty. With cheeky puns and bawdy songs, this quick-change version of the Christmas tale is a hilarious holiday treat!
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TICKETS
$30 — General Admission
$25 — Fringe Button Holders
$24 — Seniors
$18 — Students
$15 — Economic AccessibilityA limited number of $15 Economic Accessibility tickets are available online for all performances. If not sold out, a limited number of pay-as-able tickets will be available at the door. View our ticketing policy.
Do you have a MN Fringe button? Get $5 off General Admission tickets with discount code FRINGE. Show your button at the box office when checking in.
AGE RECOMMENDATION: Ages 14 and up.
CONTENT AWARENESS
SCROOGE IN ROUGE is a bawdy musical riff on Charles Dickens’ classic A CHRISTMAS CAROL. It features playful humor and some double entendres with sexual innuendo, in the spirit of British humorists Monty Python and Benny Hill. -
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Friday 11/28, 7:30pm PREVIEW
Saturday 11/29, 7:30pm OPENING
Sunday 11/30, 2:00pm
Thursday 12/4, 7:30pm
Friday 12/5, 7:30pm
Saturday 12/6, 7:30pm
Sunday 12/7, 2:00pm
Thursday 12/11, 7:30pm
Friday 12/12, 7:30pm
Saturday 12/13, 7:30pm
Sunday 12/14, 2:00pm*Thursday 12/18, 7:30pm
Friday 12/19, 7:30pm
Saturday 12/20, 2:00pm
Saturday 12/20, 7:30pm
Sunday 12/21, 2:00pm
Sunday 12/21, 7:30pmFriday 12/26, 7:30pm
Saturday 12/27, 7:30pm
Sunday 12/28, 2:00pm CLOSING*We will offer the Sunday 12/14 matinee as a masking-required performance for our community. All other shows are masking-optional.
RUN TIME: 100 minutes with a 15 minute intermission
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ACCESSIBILITY
Contact us at 612-874-6338 or boxoffice@openeyetheatre.org for accessibility information and requests. Learn more.
COVID PRECAUTIONS: All audience members will be required to wear masks during our Sunday 12/14 matinee performance. All other shows are masking-optional. The masking policy will be posted on the door.
Creative Team
Joel Sass – Director
Heidi Spesard-Noble – Choreographer
Jake Endres – Musical Director
Michael Sommers – Scenic Designer
Kathy Kohl – Costume Designer
Bill Healey – Lighting Designer
Brian Hirt – Stage Manager
Evelyn Kelly – Assistant Stage Manager
Brandon Sisneroz – Creative Technical Director
Patrick Bailey – Dialect Coach
Cast
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Abilene Olson (she/her)
Lottie Obbligato
Abilene’s powerhouse vocals come to SCROOGE IN ROUGE! Some of her favorite credits include Ghost Quartet with Theatre Elision, and Open Eye’s original musicals HAIR BALL and LOCH MESS by Josef Evans. We’re thrilled to be working with her again! Catch her in February/March for In the Green at the Elision Playhouse!
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Maren Ward (she/her)
Vesta Virile
Maren gleefully returns to holidays at Open Eye having spent many years as Father Winter in THE HOLIDAY PAGEANT. In addition to her other many roles at Open Eye (HAIR BALL, LOG JAM, CONSTANCE IN THE DARKNESS, TO THE MOON), Maren is artistic director of zAmya Theater Project.
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Neal Skoy (he/him)
Charlie Schmaltz
Neal is overjoyed to be back on the Open Eye stage once again, previously having appeared in THE BELDENVILLE TROLL and LAND OF CLOWNS. Other notable stages played include: Jungle, Park Square, Old Log, Yellow Tree, Artistry, Lyric Arts, and Huge Improv. Neal is also an accomplished circus clown and comedy instructor.
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Patrick Adkins (he/him)
Alfred Da Cappo
Patrick is a Twin Cities-based pianist and composer who specializes in jazz and improvised music, and is well-versed in a variety of musical styles and settings, with a strong classically-trained background that serves as the foundation for his versatility and adaptability. We’re delighted to have him as our accompanist!
Listen to sample recordings from the show!
Photos by Bruce Silcox.
What is English Music Hall?
Originating in saloon bars within pubs during the 1830s, music hall was a type of British theatrical entertainment that enjoyed great popularity from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the Great War. Music hall (like North American vaudeville) involved a mixture of rousing songs, sketch comedy, speciality acts, and variety entertainment.
SCROOGE IN ROUGE: An English Musical Hall Christmas Carol celebrates the holiday season with an homage to this traditional style of silly entertainment, brimming with witty lyrics, bad puns, and naughty double-entendres, all calculated to induce merriment and good cheer. Come raise a glass with us and experience some British hilarity!