A Christmas Carol – 04 December 2025

A Christmas Carol at PAC NYC deliciously lives between the worlds of a musical and a play with music. While characters don’t sing their stories to the audience, many traditional Christmas hymns underscore the show, enhancing the excitement of live performance with musical offerings including vocal selections, instrumental excerpts, and delightful bell choirs. The unique shape of the space at the Perlman Performing Arts Center was delightful as it gave opportunities to place actors on all sides and at all levels in the theater—and even the ability for fabric to create a pathway to deliver goods from the top of the balcony to the stage. As the potatoes proceeded down this channel directly over my head, I reflected on what it truly means to be a Scrooge. While colloquially the term refers to stingy curmudgeons, at the end of every retelling of Charles Dickens’s classic novel, Scrooge is someone who radically changes his life and comes to love and care for his fellow man. This beautiful story of transformation has been relevant in every context, because we all know some who have abundance and some who could use a little generosity—this is most apparent in the holiday season when many who want to give meaningful gifts do not have the purchasing power to do so.

Jack Thorne’s adaptation of this story is simply magnificent. It invites in collaboration at every turn, seen nowhere better than Hugh Vanstone’s absolutely breathtaking lighting design and Rob Howell’s stunning scenic and costuming choices. Sound design (Simon Baker) and orchestrations/arrangements (Christopher Nightingale) were superb. Casting (Jim Carnahan, CSA and Jason Thinger, CSA) made a very unique choice to hire a large number of highly talented musical actors, as opposed to those who typically do straight plays. This choice permitted extensive, fully fleshed out vocal parts performed at a heightened level of excellence, even in little moments. One actress who stood out among the pack was Dead Outlaw’s Julia Knitel, who played Scrooge (Michael Cerveris)’s love interest, Belle when she was not participating as part of the ensemble. Belle is one of the most nuanced characters in this story, and Knitel proved her acting metal with a truly fantastic, nuanced performance. When not in as Belle, her Tony nominated vocals helped Christmas carols soar angelically due to her nuanced and highly skilled singing ability. Many other roles in this play are stagnant in terms of character arcs to contrast Scrooge’s dynamic changes. Knitel handles the responsibility afforded her as one who does change with incredible depth and care.

There are many iconic moments in every tale of A Christmas Carol, particularly the ones involving Bob Cratchit (Dashiell Eaves) and Tiny Tim (Micah Fay Lupin, Izzy Elena Rita). The Gestalt of these moments, including powerful lighting and sound design, were truly moving. There was not a dry eye in the house. Some of the text was airlifted directly from Dickens, evoking laughter about Jacob Marley (Chris Hoch) being  “a blot of mustard” or “a fragment of an underdone potato”. The choice to have the entire cast descend on stage when the spirit of Christmas future comes to Scrooge for his final ghostly visit before he makes his choice to change, took a departure from the nagging merriment of the previous ghosts, marking with clarity that, all joking aside, once a person is dead they do not get to take their riches with them—if the money does not go somewhere, its value might as well not exist. Scrooge makes his choice, and the production lights up the entire stage to celebrate and partake in the joy of this moment.

After the production’s conclusion, Michael Cerveris stepped forward with a heartfelt ask for donations, citing that the story of A Christmas Carol is meant to spark action to help those who need it. One last bell choir was heard before the audience exited the space, feeling a mixture of solemnity and excitement. This time of year, and really all year, the spirit of giving and rejoicing carries an important weight. A Christmas Carol shows its audience how that weight can feel light when the burden is shared and people look after one another. I can think of no better message for the world today.

I attended this performance on a press pass from Polk & Co.