Emily...?

Yes, Scrooge's girlfriend is named Belle in the book. This isn't the only adaptation that changed her name, though. Mickey's Christmas Carol called her Isabelle, and Scrooge (with Alastair Sim) called her Alice for some unknown reason.

(And while I'm at it, this version also changed the name of Mrs. Dilber to Mrs. Mops, and might've changed a few other names as well. I have no idea WHY, though.)

The reason Belle's name was changed to Emily for this production was mainly due to the fact that when Alan Menken wrote the score to this he was just coming off of the success of the film of Beauty and the Beast as well as getting ready for the Broadway opening of Beauty and the Beast - so it was decided by either Menken or the producers of the original production of A Christmas Carol to not use the same name.

I worked on the original production of this musical - back in 1994 when it opened at the Theater at Madison Sq Garden - and that was the reason I was told the name was changed. I personaly don't think it would have mattered at all to have used the same name- but then nobody asked me.

An interesting side note to this- the original actress who played this part in thr original 1994 production was Emily Skinner (who went on to play many parts on Broadway, including receiving a Tony nomination for SIDE SHOW) - I don't know if the name of the character was changed to Emily after she had been cast-and they decided to just use her name or if Emily just happened to have been cast in a part with the same name.

If you like the score to this tv movie you should check out the Original Cast Recording -as there are some different things in the original version.