JOHN DAVID WESTBY PLAYWRIGHT | SCREENWRITER | ACTOR | DIRECTOR | NEW PLAYS AVAILABLE
One Scrooge. Three Hauntings. Christmas Mayhem.
No cast, no set, no problem—just Christmas spirit
The Ultimate Christmas Carol is a madcap, ensemble-driven parody of the Dickens classic. When everything that can go wrong does—missing actors, no costumes, torn script pages—the remaining performers forge ahead, improvising roles, breaking the fourth wall, and adults arguing over who gets to play Tiny Tim.
At the center is Ebenezer Scrooge, played straight despite the chaos around him, as he is visited by his cynical business partner, Marley, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.
The narrator, claiming to be “Mrs. Charles Dickens” (or possibly AI-generated), tries to keep the story on track while the actors jump between roles and time periods. Meta-jokes, anachronisms, musical riffs, and theater in-jokes abound, but the story still builds to the classic final line—nearly forgotten in the flurry of improv—and a raucous, feel-good finale.
Can Christmas be saved by a half-baked troupe of actors and one very last-minute redemption? You bet it can.
Cast of 7 (mixed genders and ages)
Open set
Dickens never saw this coming.
When the cast and crew vanish, seven frantic actors must improvise their way through a very off-script version of Dickens’ Christmas classic.
A small-town theater’s cast and crew get waylaid by a host of excuses so the handful of remaining performers must cobble together a production of A Christmas Carol using whatever (and whoever) is on hand.
Let the fun begin!