**** I am not exactly sure how many times I have watched a production of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. I know for a fact that I have watched the film version several times, and for the first 15 or so years at The Goodman, I was in the audience. When they sold the millionth ticket for their amazing production, I was the Santa on stage,  awarding the buyer some wonderful prizes in honor of that event.

Elsewhere on this website, you will find the review for the current production at the Goodman as well as the Milwaukee production. This afternoon, after attending a wonderful production of “A Year With Frog And Toad”, I drove from the city ( in a snowstorm) to the Metropolis Performing Arts Center to witness a  new adaptation of this classic written by Johanna McKenzie Miller, who also directed the production as well.

The biggest difference is that this version is about  two hours including the intermission and there is music ( there is also a musical version as well as “Scrooge” that was done in the 1990’s), but this one is not an original musical, using typical seasonal tunes with the exception of a beautiful new song “God Bless Us Everyone” written by Cory Goodrich, that I hope she will make available for me to play on my radio show. It is lovely and meaningful.

This cast is made up of many actors who play many roles, so one must pay close attention to the smaller roles. They also have three youth casts- “Frosty”, “Jingle” and today’s “Rudolph” handling the children’s parts. For exampe, Beau Jackson handled this afternoon’s cast as Tiny Tim. The other members of this ensemble are Annabel Finch, Molly Hamada, Sophie Tucker ( now, there is a name from the past), Archer Geye and Olivia Tibble. The kids were delightful.

Now on to the major roles. Steve Connell does a wonderful Scrooge. The way he deals with the Ghosts and the transformation itself are as perfect as I have ever seen anyone in the role, and unlike some of the fancy venues, he has no ability to fly with his ghosts or any special effects at all, jut pure acting. He nails it! Morgan Barber as “Fan”, who is in reality like the narrator, telling us the tale of this infamous Christmas Eve/Day, is dynamite. I have never seen her before, but I will make sure to do so in the future.

Ryan Armstrong is Bob Cratchit ( plus a myriad of other roles) and is quite honest in the role. The ghosts: Scrooge’s  business partner by David Blakeman, Christmas Present, Samantha Mayer and Christmas Past by Annabel Finch. Again, all of these actors played many roles so many costume changes and character changes on the run. Bravo!

The rest of the cast, the ensemble, are all of great import to this production and they all deserve notice for their work: Erin Minervini, Jim La Pietra, Maya McEntyre, Cayenne Johnson, Matthew Hommel, Felipe Escudero, Spencer Curtis, and Genvieve Corkery. Some of them even played musical instruments, as needed. There was some other original music by Christopher Kriz and Corey Goodrich was the musical director.

The set was designed by Angela Weber Miller, and costumes by Emma Cullimore with lighting by Dan Frank and sound by Christopher Kriz. The props were designed and procured by Alexandra Raffini and the wigs, hair and makeup by Mark Park.  This is a sterling production placed on a stage that was never designed for a play of this type. Ms. Miller and her staff, in an attempt to rebuild this regional venue have brought some quality to downtown Arlington Heights and I for one will make sure to catch every production in the upcoming season.

“A Christmas Carol” will continue thru – Dec 24th with performances as follows: