A Christmas Carol (Thorne Adaptation) Off-Broadway Reviews

The director Matthew Warchus swathes the production in flourishes, many of them at least partly charming: a galaxy of warm, twinkling lanterns suspended above the stage; a preshow in which the company plays carols and tosses cookies and clementines to the audience; showers of brightly lit foamy snow that will actually melt on your face. But there’s no disguising Thorne’s limp, self-satisfied script, which feels less magical than simplistically Freudian. A Christmas therapist’s couch.

Prettily dressed in flowery patchwork attire as the spirits who wise up Scrooge is an admirable trio: Ashlyn Maddox possesses a luminous quality and Crystal Lucas-Perry is a fiery, no-nonsense presence spiked with a Caribbean accent, but the weary graciousness that Nancy Opel exudes as a motherly Ghost of Christmas Past is haunting. So touching in her recent Tony-nominated performance in Dead Outlaw, Julia Knitel lends a genuine sensibility to Belle both as a feisty girl and a wise matron. Izzy Elena Rita presents quite a valiant Tiny Tim. The ensemble work by the 15-member company looks as good, if not better, than Broadway standard. Their bell-ringing reprise after the bows sends the audience out with smiles.

Under the imaginative conception and direction of Matthew Warchus (with co-direction by Thomas Caruso for PAC NYC), it’s a magical experience that is sure to enchant even the most crotchety among us, brimming with warmth, good cheer, and the true meaning of Christmas.

It’s Christmastime in the city, and you can hear the silver bells ring off Broadway in A Christmas Carol — quite literally. Of the many traditional carols performed in this production, those performed with a full bell choir stunned my audience into awed silence. And shock and awe are just the beginning of the emotions this evocative production hopes to stir up.

Countless actors have assumed the epochal role of Ebenezer Scrooge in various film, television, and stage versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. While many have done so with excellence, few have come close to handling this challenge with more grounded realism than two-time Tony Award winner Michael Cerveris.

However, darkness is not what this “Christmas Carol” is about, or where it wishes to dwell. This version relishes simpler things, such as its centerpiece sequence of a newly transformed Scrooge giddily greeting and shaking hands with the audience and overseeing a cavalcade of potatoes, sprouts, apples, oranges and a ginormous bronzed turkey, all transported to the stage via fabric chutes and rope. Amid this bounty, the audience is encouraged to donate to River Fund, a provider of emergency food in New York City.