Meet the Composer of A Christmas Carol

A Q&A with Billy Thompson

1. What inspired your original compositions for A Christmas Carol nine years ago?

Sean (Artistic Director of Cygnet Theatre) and I actually started 12 years ago with a radio version to follow up the It’s A Wonderful Life radio play Cygnet had been presenting since its Rolando days and in which I had played the pianist, Stanley Church for two years after moving into Old Town. The radio lens gave me latitude to be delightfully dramatic, though I think my most original material was in the radio themes and advertisements since the music for the actual story was mostly arrangements of classic carols and was exclusively underscore that first year. We started introducing songs within the story the second year and decided the show could stand on its own without being encased in the radio show-within-a-show in the future. Much like the sound effects you see and hear coming from the stage, the most dramatic moments in the score descend from those early radio versions.

Composer Billy Thompson sits in a velvet green chair in front of a Christmas tree on the Cygnet stage. — Composer Billy Thompson.

2. What motivated you to revisit and update some of the music for this year’s production?

I’ve generally made some small changes every year, but this is the biggest and most noticeable in a while with the reintroduction of Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, who I don’t think we’ve seen since 2012. His theme was reassigned, so we culled a new one from the annals of obscure traditional carols. The addition of the violin/viola also meant combing through the score note by note to arrange it now for two instrumentalists. A combination of other tweaks Sean wanted to make to the script and my own nit-picking, along with new cast members with new actions, intentions, and timings required some other changes to maintain dramatic consistency. The goal is always to tell the story in the most effective way.

3. Can you share a specific moment or song in the show that underwent significant changes and why?

To avoid redundancy with other questions, I’ll say “A Christmas Jig.” Now having the violin, we could augment some of the narration with a demonstration of “tuning like 50 stomach aches,” honor a callout in Dickens’s book to “Roger de Coverly” which replaced my own reel in the introduction, and move my reel to the middle to feature Sean La Perruque’s wonderful skill center stage. We also cut a sung verse in order to feature more of Katie Banville’s delightful choreography and generally make the party more lively and active.

4. Are there any moments in the updated score that you’re particularly excited for the audience to experience?

I think my favorite revision comes as the Ghost of Christmas Past wraps up their visit. Bringing Fred back into the story meant we also brought Little Fan back, which meant another voice and melody swimming around the soundscape. Fezziwig has come and gone from the sequence, and I’m pleased to say he’s back in. And Past themselves sing their admonishment of Scrooge for the first time, giving voice to the melody that has accompanied them since the very beginning with words that give Scrooge no leeway to disown his past actions.

5. What do you hope the music adds to the storytelling of A Christmas Carol this season?

I love musical theatre because it makes stories like this more accessible than reading alone can be. Music also allows us as creators to deepen context or provide subtext. I hope that the musical themes of A Christmas Carol make the literary themes and lessons more memorable, and I hope that the joyful noise of the final sequence helps to launch a joyful holiday season for our audiences!

6. How has your connection to this production grown over the past nine years?

I’m sad to say it ebbs and flows with scheduling, but I’m thrilled that I got to dive back in so thoroughly this year (including getting to play a couple performances), to reconnect with these wonderful artists telling this wonderful story, and I’m excited to do the same next year as we expand it to fill Cygnet’s amazing new home at The Joan in ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station!

7. If you had to describe the score of A Christmas Carol in three words, what would they be?

I find it dramatic, delightful, and catchy. I mean, it came out of my head, so it makes sense that it could get stuck in my head pretty easily. Hopefully, whatever earworm sticks brings with it a welcome memory of a delightful evening of Dickensian drama.