Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"...Brown has now graduated to director--the Goodman's "Carol" is as close as Chicago actors get to their own Russian repertory company--and turned over the lead to Jonathan Weir, a less ebullient Scrooge, perhaps, but a most intelligent and credible one with a genuinely intimidating bark. The result is the best Goodman "Carol" in several years."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Darker and clearer in many ways, with some neatly sharpened music and dance sequences, the show also has an intriguing lineage. Serving as director is William Brown, who played Scrooge at the Goodman for the past four years. Starring as the money-warped Scrooge is Jonathan Weir, who in previous seasons made his mark as Jacob Marley, Scrooge's late business partner."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...Former Scrooge William Brown stages this production, which deepens by darkening. In Tom Creamer's lean, uncompromising adaptation, Scrooge is no mere covetous clown- he's a bogeyman so miserly he's monstrous. If he can be saved, there's hope for all of us."
EpochTimes - Highly Recommended
"...A production that runs so smoothly and is so sharp is composed of a number of ingredients to make this happen. Great actors, a sharp director, a set ( Todd Rosenthal) that will "knock your socks off", wonderful costuming by Heidi Sue Mcmath, special lighting by Robert Christen and sound by Lindsay Jones with some very special music added to get the recipe just right. If your ready to get into the holiday mood, get over to the Goodman and enjoy this tremendous production."
Northwest Indiana Times - Highly Recommended
"... attended the press opening on Sunday, and I'm still thinking about some of the clever and memorable scenes and performers I enjoyed during the two-hour return to Charles Dickens' classic 1843 tale."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...Director Brown (who played the Goodman’s Ebenezer for several years and now directs the show for the first time) falls into the trap of contrasting Scrooge’s scrooginess with the over-the-top all things nice of the Fezziwigs and Cratchits. Given their forced, false joviality, it’s hard to begrudge Scrooge a “bah humbug” or two. All the more reason to admire Weir, who has us believing in such once-a-year fantasies as capitalism with a heart."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...If your wondering which holiday shows to see, pencil in the Goodman’s A Christmas Carol—it simply is the premiere holiday show in Chicago—that’s why it has lasted 29 years!"
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...Weir is brilliant in the role, revealing layers of depth one would expect to see only from someone who had lived with the curmudgeonly skinflint a long while. He resists the urge to turn Scrooge's love of profit into a cartoon, richly illustrating the path that led to Scrooge's fateful choice to "keep all human sympathy at a distance." We witness a carefully studied and believable impatience with human nature that yields into a life altering reclamation and finally a most contagious delirium with his newfound love for life. The scars that caused Scrooge's heart to grow cold are deep, and when Weir takes a deep breath before embracing his nephew for the first time, it is a genuine and touching redemption."
