Scrooge first came into my life is a very pleasant motion picture experience way back in 1970. I contributed the screenplay, music, and lyrics, and the project was, I am happy to record, a success. The stage though, is as different an animal from the screen as is the tiger from the rhinoceros, but they are equally wild in their different ways, and their needs are not always the same. For Scrooge, one main problem, aside from how to make the film work on stage, was how to make a seasonal run commercially viable. After many years of discussion and theorising, that problem ultimately solved itself when Scrooge - The Musical opened at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, England, in November 1992. It was an instantaneous smash - largely, I believe, because I had always known exactly whom I wanted to play the title role - and he played it to a fare-thee-well. My old chum Anthony Newley found the role of his life as Scrooge. He was merely sensational, and for me it was the most satisfying and rewarding of professional reunions.