How 'A Christmas Carol' Star LaChanze Got Her Holiday Shopping Done While Starring on Broadway
“This isn’t a campy version of A Christmas Carol,” the actress, who won a Tony in 2006 for her role in The Color Purple, for says of her current production, at the Lyceum Theatre through January 5. “It’s very authentic.”
It’s true that this production of Charles Dickens’s classic holiday story—which previously ran at London’s Old Vic—takes pains to tell its story seriously. Audiences walk into a room illuminated by more than 700 lanterns and are greeted by cast members who are doling out clementines and cookies. “That’s how the spirit of the holidays is established,” LaChanze says. “The crowd is cheering before we’re even on stage, so the magic sets in early.”
It doesn’t go away, either. Over the course of the musical, which also stars Andrea Martin and Campbell Scott, the cast sings songs including “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World” to accompany Ebenezer Scrooge’s long night of reflection, and the staging of the show—which was adapted by Harry Potter and the Cursed Child scribe Jack Thorne and directed by Matilda’s Matthew Warchus.
Exactly why are most shows “dark” on Mondays? It’s said to harken back to the loosening of blue laws in the 1970s when businesses were finally allowed to open on Sundays and Monday became Broadway’s day of rest. (Generally, a select few shows do perform on Monday.) Here, T&C talks to LaChanze about her one day off.
Where Can We Find You on Monday?
I like to keep Monday completely free. I want my day off to be my day off. I had a weekend like some people, I might spend one day running errands and the other day relaxing. Having only one day, I just do the relaxing at home. Monday is a blackout day for me; I don’t allow anything complicated. If it involves getting dressed up or putting on makeup, it’s not going to happen. A day off needs to be just that.
Does Monday Start on Sunday Night?
The truth is that Sunday nights for a Broadway performer is Friday night for the rest of the world. If we want to be social, to meet friends, to have dinner out, it’s our one night to do that. So, every Sunday night I’m finding a way to enjoy myself. For example, this past Sunday night I saw a group of friends I get together with once a month to play cards, we play a game called bid whist. This time around I was the host—and these get togethers can end up going into the late night or early morning depending on how competitive we get.
Cooking or Ordering In?
I’m a big cook. I’m very much into using organic foods, so I spend a lot of time shopping trying to find the best ingredients I can. If it’s a warm day, I’ll be out in my garden. I harvest vegetables through the end of the fall; I just pulled up my sweet potatoes. I’m an old-school gardener, but that’s what you get living in Westchester: a little patch of grass.
What’s Your Downtime Indulgence?
If I’m not in my yard, I do love to read. I’m currently reading The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington about the value of sleep. I think that a lot of times our bodies can be healed with an adequate amount of rest. As a singer, I don’t think there’s enough tea or lozenges out there to heal my voice like sleep does.
What’s on TV?
I’m a TV watcher, but I don’t binge much on Mondays. It happens later at night, when I get home from work. It takes a while to wind down from a show like ours, which gets your energy flying high. I’ll come home and have a ginger tea or Sauvignon Blanc and stay up way too late.
Are Mondays for Last-Minute Holiday Shopping?
I’m one of those people who shops throughout the year. If I see something, I get it and hide it until it’s time. My family does that thing where we all buy one gift and put them in a pile, and everyone pulls a number and then selects a gift and swap. We call it the Christmas Game. But my birthday falls a few days before Christmas, so I tend to make that a big deal. This year, a friend and I are planning a fancy spa day at Aire, a place we’ve been dying to visit.
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