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With the exception of the 2020-21 season that fell in the thick of the pandemic, Portland Playhouse has produced A Christmas Carol every season since its sixth in 2013-14. That season followed a yearlong legal battle with the city of Portland to allow the nonprofit theater to continue operating in the disused Highland Congregational Church—a battle won with the help of the King Neighborhood Association.
This holiday season, 10 years after the tradition began, A Christmas Carol returns to the Playhouse with music by Rick Lombardo and Anna Lackaff—plus some modern anachronistic flourishes.
Best described as a holiday jukebox musical, the play is powered by traditional Christmas carols—some sung, some eerily hummed in thrilling moments. Helming the production for the first time is Charles Grant, taking the director’s chair after years as an actor in past Playhouse productions (playing the Ghost of Christmas Present, among other roles).
True to Charles Dickens’ novel, the play alludes to a traumatic past for Scrooge (Lester Purry). When he was a boy (played by Ellis Robinson, alternating with Inara Elorreaga), his father left him all alone at boarding school for many Christmases, and his growing greed in his youth (during which he’s played by Lauren Steele, who also plays Mrs. Cratchit) cost him his engagement to Belle (Tessa May).
Though the play doesn’t delve into any more detail, Purry cleverly plays the older Scrooge with an aversion to touch, a detail that noticeably separates him from the other characters, emphasizing the story’s familial and friendship bonds.
In contrast to Scrooge, his nephew Fred (Claire Rigsby) bounds into the counting house ready to embrace his uncle and wish him a merry Christmas. Bob Cratchit (DJ Curtis) warms up to Fred and enthusiastically cheers him on until Scrooge shouts him down. As for Cratchit, his family, which includes Tiny Tim (also played by Robinson, alternating with Elorreaga), is as loving and embattled as ever.
Other standouts include Steele, who sings in the warmup jams before the show, led on the accordion by musical director Benjamin Tissell, who also plays Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Past, who looks like a ‘70s English prog-rocker, complete with sunglasses and a clock-patterned hat. The sunglasses are a bit peculiar (they weren’t mass produced until 1929), but then again, this production also includes a disco ball at Fezziwig’s party, and Scrooge sneaks in a fist bump late in the show.
A Christmas Carol may be a Portland Playhouse tradition, but even the most storied rituals can benefit from a little glitter and glam.
SEE IT: A Christmas Carol plays at Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott St., 503-488-5822, portlandplayhouse.org. 7 pm Wednesday-Sunday, 2 pm Saturday-Sunday, through Dec. 30. $59.95, $5 Arts for All, limited number of $25 tickets available.