A Perfect “Christmas Carol” for Our Time and All Time

I must confess — and ‘tis the season for this confession: I’ve never read A Christmas Carol. Not much of an admission for some, but if you’re a theatre critic with fancy degrees who’s reviewed a half-dozen stage adaptations of this Charles Dickens classic, maybe you feel a bit funny coming clean.

With that off my chest, I have to admit I’m glad I hadn’t read it prior to seeing TBD Productions’ new staging (based on a production originated at L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse in 2018), because the novelty of hearing so much new (to me) text in a work so familiar was a real treat. 

But that pleasure is just a small part of the joy I received from the show as a whole, the best seasonal entertainment this side of It’s a Wonderful Life and the best one-man show I’ve ever seen — partly because of the redoubtable team producer Hunter Arnold brought together to pull it off.

The man here is Tony and Obie Award-winner Jefferson Mays, who so seamlessly portrays the narrator and every one of the dozens of characters with speaking parts that it’s as if Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol with just this sort of presentation in mind. Mays’s mastery of every line, syllable, and nuance brings to the surface the text’s many layers — the pathos, the philosophy, the playfulness, the entire emotional rainbow of Scrooge’s broad character arc. As with a great Shakespeare performance, you are guaranteed to come away with a fuller understanding and appreciation than you had going in.

Although TBD gives us more of what’s on the page than you’ll hear in any stage version that isn’t a simple reading, Mays, along with fellow adaptors Susan Lyons and Michael Arden (who deftly directs the proceedings), have made cuts, judiciously wielding their scalpel to trim the fat from digressions (such as an early bit about Hamlet) that would get us going sideways rather than forwards. Blasphemous as it may be to say, the result feels like an improvement (yes, now I’ve read the whole thing). Clocking in at 97 minutes, there isn’t a single superfluous second in this A Christmas Carol, which retains not only the source material’s full action and essence but also its idiosyncrasy and rich detailing. Plus, a blink-and-you-miss-it addition (based on the sure bet that you’ve never heard of “negus”) adds a gut-busting laugh.

But more important to the triumph than skillful surgery is the gestalt. Captured more or less live with multiple cameras at New York’s United Palace on October 28th, TBD’s design team has done wonders. Immaculate scenery drops from the flies and sails across the stage as if riding ice floes. Visual effects — most of it impressively in-camera — strikingly complement the text without ever upstaging it. Lighting evolves from perfect candlelight to dazzling whiteout, stopping at an array of gradations in between, all perfectly placed and paced. The sound spooks and shocks. And that’s to say nothing of the extensive, affecting use of Sufjan Stevens.

The end result is an impossibly good live show, a production that could not quite be achieved even on Broadway. With a book by Charles Dickens. Not too shabby.

Another confession: I chose to review this production partly because it’s relatively easy to write about a familiar show, and partly because every year it’s nice to have an excuse to remind people of the messages embedded in A Christmas Carol, messages — such as the idea that people can “open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys” — that transcend the holiday season and (if we’re lucky) take root in our soul to grow throughout our lifetime. What other reasons could I have had? How many readers do I think will drop $50 to watch a stage play at home, even if part of the proceeds go toward helping local theatre survive COVID-19?  

But if you can afford it, I can’t think of a nicer Xmas gift to give yourself and your loved ones. Creatively inspired by the limitations of our difficult present, TBD Productions expertly deliver a timeless message of hope, humanity, and the capacity to create a better future. This virtuosic A Christmas Carol would be worth seeing in the best of times. Right now, it’s a double blessing.

TBD Productions’ Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” streams on-demand through January 3. Cost: $50. For more information or to purchase a “ticket” so part of the proceeds benefit Long Beach’s International City Theatre, go ictlongbeach.org/2020-season/.