Review: Guthrie’s 50th anniversary ‘Christmas Carol’ offers a novel take on the miser

All he needs now are wire-rimmed spectacles.

For its 50th anniversary production of “A Christmas Carol,” the Guthrie Theater has hired a new actor to play Charles Dickens’ iconic miser, a figure usually portrayed as kin to a crabby cartoon money-grubber.

David Beach, whose six Broadway credits include two shows with exclamatory titles —“Something Rotten!” and “Mamma Mia!” — brings a bold, if familiar flavor to the role, and it nods to a figure that you might see this holiday season at the Mall of America.

The most moisturized and funniest Scrooge yet, Beach’s golden jubilee Scrooge has wrinkle-free features, cherubic cheeks and an air of jollity. Yes, he’s giving off Santa vibes. Heck, a hearty ho-ho-ho would not be out of place at the end of his performance in the production that’s up now through Dec. 29 at the Guthrie.

Importantly, Beach also has amplified the humor around Scrooge, pacing the role early on with a comic beat. He responds to an invite from his nephew Fred (John Catron in a patient and generous turn) with mockery and tells loyal clerk Bob Cratchit (Tyler Michaels King, a font of goodwill) that a holiday from work is simply a way of picking a businessman’s pocket.

Beach also repeats phrases with sarcastic tonal shifts and finds physical gestures to underscore his lines. If we recognize the irony in his delivery — even as the Santa air blunts the bitterness of his words — it’s because that kind of read is more of this age than Victorian England. Ahistorical or not, Beach is the jolliest actor to inhabit Scrooge at the Guthrie in the past three decades, if not ever.

After its 1974 premiere in an adaptation by Barbara Field, “Carol” grew and grew, adding scenes, songs and dances that were adjacent to, but not of, Dickens’ novella. To freshen and trim back the property, former artistic director Joe Dowling commissioned a new take from Crispin Whittell in 2010 that ran for a decade before Guthrie artistic director Joseph Haj tapped Chicago-based theater artist Lavina Jadhwani for the current stripped-down adaptation.

This production, directed by Addie Gorlin-Han based on Haj’s staging, is in the phase of growing again, and it’s doing so by amplifying the Christmas spirit. The show is suffused with good cheer from choral hymns and carols to new music. Interstitial scoring adds not only to the feel but also to the sense of elapsing time. Regina Peluso’s choreography underscores both themes, with characters turning and dancing but also moving like clock hands. And Matt Saunders’ scenic design is still Victorian England pulled through a cubist lens.

The performing ensemble delivers with excellence. Nathaniel Fuller, who has played Scrooge, partner Jacob Marley and other roles in “Carol” over the decades, starts the whole thing off with a choral narration. He later adds a sense of history and purpose as Old Joe.

Another foundational touchstone comes in the person of Summer Hagen, now in her 16th season in the show and returning as a Fezziwig daughter.

A former Scrooge, Charity Jones is striking as Marley. As she wields her chains amid lightning and thunder to warn Scrooge about what lies ahead for his unreconstructed soul, we get the frightening message.

A gilded Eric Sharp descends smoothly from the rafters as the Ghost of Christmas Past. Regina Marie Williams makes a triumphant return as the Ghost of Christmas Present, delivering a magnanimous and magisterial performance after dropping out of the role last year because of a health scare. Silent and scary, Nathan Huberty’s Ghost of Christmas Future haunts the Guthrie stage like a festival effigy ready to be burned on a moonless night.

“Carol” always has taken a whole village to put on and this supporting cast earns its keep. Stephanie Anne Bertumen and Sebastian Grim are darling as Belle and Young Scrooge, with their performance (and his kneeling) closing the sharp height differential.

Max Wojtanowicz and Becca Claire Hart are witty and clipped as alms collectors. Kudos also to Emily Gunyou Halaas as a Charwoman and a Fezziwig daughter, Emjoy Gavino as Mrs. Cratchit, China Brickey as Fred’s smart and cheerful wife, Audrey Mojica as Scrooge’s niece Fan, and Paul de Cordova as big-hearted Fezziwig. Their performances, in Toni-Leslie James’ imaginative, period-evocative costumes and Yi Zhao’s sharp lighting, make the show sing.

So, this “Carol” invites you to come for Scrooge and get an unexpected side of Santa-like merriment.

Where: Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2nd St., Mpls.

When: 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 1 & 7:30 p.m. Sat., 1 & 7 p.m. Sun. Ends Dec. 29.

Tickets: $29 to $139, 612-377-2224, guthrietheater.org.