Broadway couple creates a socially distant show of the holiday classic, 'A Christmas Carol'

ByAlex Ciccarone Localish logo

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Broadway couple performs socially distant 'A Christmas Carol'

When one Broadway couple found themselves out of a job they decided to create their own company to bring socially distant performances to Long Island. Their first event is a one-man show performing the holiday classic, 'A Christmas Carol'.

GREENPORT, New York -- 'A Christmas Carol' is a holiday classic that has been told for many generations and is traditionally performed on the stage with a huge staff.

However, with the coronavirus pandemic in full-effect Broadway is still dark and live shows have become a thing of the past.

When one Broadway husband and wife duo could not take it anymore. Vanessa Leuck and Ethan Popp decided to create their own company, Broadway on the North Fork.

"When Broadway first shut down, we were told it was going to be a month and that we'd be back getting into rehearsal again and then open," said Ethan Popp, Co-founder of Broadway on the North Fork. "A month came and went, then two months, three months and by the time we got into the summer, we really needed to do something."

It was on Leuck and Popp's 11th anniversary when Popp had the idea of creating a socially distant Christmas Carol interpretation told by one person, playing multiple characters.

The show is an immersive experience where you are invited to the narrator's dinner party when he burst's through the door fashionably late sharing why Christmas is his favorite time of the year, later going into the telling of the classic story.

"I think the universality of the piece is that we are all Ebenezer Scrooge," said Scott H. Severance, the actor who portrays each character in the performance. "Sometimes we're terrible human beings, sometimes we're glorious human beings and sometimes we have to be taught lessons by life to get to places we prefer to be."

Severance uses a make-shift stage at Greenport's First and South restaurant who host's the event and has a holiday menu to coordinate with the performance, to get customers feeling festive.

Reservations were required for each performance to maintain CDC guidelines.

The couple is excited for the future of Broadway on the North Fork and the future performances they plan to create for the upcoming seasons!

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