Star Tribune - Recommended

"...It's a fitting start for a "Carol" that, in its finest moments, seeks to be subtly simple and advance the story through music and movement. British playwright Crispin Whittell wrote the script, directed as always by Joe Chvala, leader of the local percussive dance troupe Flying Foot Forum. Although not billed as a musical, Morris dancing and English country revelry liven up the party scenes, and less-familiar contemplative carols — songs like "Gabriel's Message" and "Holly and the Ivy" — are beautifully sung by the cast."
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Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended

"...Minnesotans, attending the Guthrie Theater's A Christmas Carol is an annual ritual, almost on par with sending Christmas cards or buying a tree. Joe Chvala's elegant, well-wrought, and talent-packed production will no doubt meet every expectation of returning audiences, and it will probably win the hearts of those who are seeing the play for the first time. This crowd pleaser of a show has everything—Morris dancers, fabulous extravagant mobile sets, splendid choral singing, trapdoors, flying ghosts, mistletoe, plum pudding, brilliant choreography, and fog—in other words, Guthrie with all the trimmings"
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Twin Cities Arts Reader - Recommended

"...Like settling into The Sound of Music or another familiar classic, A Christmas Carol is not the sort of show that you go to expecting surprises. You won't find any here, except perhaps being surprised that you're not actually that jaded and it does warm your heart a bit. Joe Chvala returns as the director of this adaptation by Crispin Whittell, which guest-stars a cool but familiar transforming and rotating set by Christopher Akerlind. (Sidenote: If there's ever a reminder that London's winter is paltry, it's the massive panel of windows in Scrooge's roof. Looks great, freezes you faster than the Polar Plunge.) It's slick, it has some nice touches, and it's as familiar as Grandma's hot dish."
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