A Christmas Carol’: Theater Review

Every year around the holidays, adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol surface like regurgitated eggnog at regional theaters across the country. But Jack Thorne’s retelling breathes new life into the old chestnut, creating an enchanting spectacle that really is something special. Staged with an ideal balance of sentiment and showmanship by Matthew Warchus and first seen in 2017 at London’s Old Vic, where he is artistic director, the immersive production is infused with period atmosphere and heart-stirring music, fostering an infectious spirit of good cheer that reaches giddy heights with the movable feast of the play’s climax.

Led by Campbell Scott in excellent form as the miserly Scrooge, this Broadway transfer raises the bar for seasonal stage comfort food. The collective embrace of the experience is extended even before the show gets under way, with ensemble members in topcoats and tall hats chatting with the audience while handing out cookies and clementines (“Like oranges, but British,” one of them quipped) as a musical quartet of strings and accordion plays on the stage.