A Christmas Carol at KCRep
Having just seen two modern Canadian adaptations of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Blyth Festival and the Foster Festival, I found it fascinating to take in a good, old-fashioned production of the perennial holiday favourite in Kansas City, Missouri.
The KCRep is one of a number of American regional theatres that mount lavish productions of A Christmas Carol every year. Tradition is part of it – I also suspect it’s a sure-fire money maker – but it’s also an opportunity to lure in people who otherwise wouldn’t be caught dead in a theatre. That point was made painfully clear by KCRep Artistic Director Stuart Carden in a pre-show talk in which he implored those who only come for A Christmas Carol to return to see what else is on offer.
KCRep’s version is as traditional as it gets. It’s a new adaptation by Jason Chanos (who also directs) and Carden. There is not a line in it that isn’t drawn from Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” with no “improvements” added. Well, maybe a few. More on that anon.
Director Chanos has made full use of of the Rep’s Spencer Theatre. Set designer John Ezell has contributed a large and ingenious revolving set that moves the action effortlessly from place to place. Jenny Green has provided a cityful of period costumes for a large cast, many of whom play multiple parts, while Minjoo Kim’s lighting and Joshua Horvath’s sound design are nimble and imaginative. The same can be said of Marc Wayne’s occasional choreography. This is a truly impressive rendition of Dickens’ timeless tale.
This Christmas Carol employs – to excellent effect – a veritable army of youngsters, divided into two ten-member “Youth Ensembles,” amusingly dubbed the Holly Cast and the Ivy Cast. The Machiavels who run the Rep have obviously cottoned on to the wisdom of hooking kids on theatre as early as possible. A careful perusal of the programme reveals that they have even decided to inflict this addiction on their own kids!
A show like A Christmas Carol, which demands doubling and tripling of parts, benefits from a crackerjack cast and this version does not disappoint.
John Rensenhouse is suitably scary as Marley’s ghost, only to return as a jolly Mr. Fezziwig. Chioma Anyanwu is a beguiling Ghost of Christmas Past, while Matthew Rapport, resplendent in fur-trimmed green robe and on stilts, excels as the Ghost of Christmas Present.
He takes Scrooge on a tour of the audience, liberally sprinkling glitter on everyone within reach. It’s a gimmick as hokey as they come, but the crowd loves it and Rapport ad-libs brilliantly.
Sam Cordes doubles nicely as Scrooge’s nephew Fred and young Ebenezer while Cody Proctor makes for a sympathetic Bob Crachit.
Gary Neal Johnson is an exemplary Scrooge, which may have something to do with the fact that he has been involved in most productions since this tradition began forty-four years ago! He has been playing Scrooge for some twenty-five of those years, which according to Carden’s pre-show speech makes him the longest-serving Scrooge in the United States.
Another veteran is Peggy Friesen, appearing in her fortieth Christmas Carol. She has played a number of roles over the years, including the Ghost of Christmas Past. This year she doubles as Mrs. Fezziwig, and the charwoman who sells the dead Scrooge’s bed curtains. Like all accomplished performers she makes an indelible impression in small parts.
Friesen also plays the harp in the small musical ensemble comprised of violinist Jonathan Lloyd Schriock, and keyboardist Anthony T. Edwards (also the musical director).
A Christmas Carol employs a narrator, who by all rights should be Charles Dickens himself. Here the role is assayed by an angrily strident Nedra Dixon, who despite being aggressively mic’ed, screams her way through the part. It’s the only sour note in the show.
In addition to doing a masterful job of deploying a large cast across a complex set, director Chanos has paid particular attention to the minor details that enrich characterizations and add depth and texture to the experience. The wry facial expression, the raised eyebrow, the perfectly timed curtsy, the just-so line reading have all been deployed to great effect.
Most productions of A Christmas Carol are resolutely nonsectarian. I like to say Dickens preached the Christian message without the inconvenience of deities.
In Dickens’ original, religion is acknowledged only obliquely. The words “Christ” and “Jesus” never appear. The closest he got was when he had Tiny Tim mention someone “who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.”
Chanos and Carden’s Christmas Carol doesn’t shy away from the fact that Christmas celebrates the birth of someone many believe to be the Messiah predicted by the Old Testament, a.k.a. the Hebrew Torah.
A splendid rendition of “O Come All Ye Faithful,” beautifully sung by the entire cast creating a gorgeous, candle-lit stage picture, drives the point home. The effect is understated but nonetheless powerful.
So perhaps Christmas isn’t just a time of good cheer and fellowship in the dead of winter, when in addition to exchanging presents and enjoying flaming pudding it is especially becoming of us to acknowledge the plight of the less fortunate, at least for a day or two.
Maybe that guy who opened the eyes of the blind wants us to open our own eyes to the suffering of our fellow human beings.
Wait. What am I thinking? This is America. Surely our time can be better spent getting rid of the garbage that is washing up on our shores like wretched refuse. And while we’re at it, let’s make the lives of our nearest neighbours miserable, never asking what we can do for others but only what others can do for us.
Note to self: Avoid theatre in the New Year. It can be dangerous to right thinking.
A Christmas Carol closed at the KCRep on December 27, 2025. To find out what’s going on later this season and (hopefully) to purchase tickets to those shows visit the KCRep website.
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