During the holiday season productions of A Christmas Carol are as ubiquitous as productions of The Nutcracker. However, if one were to choose the definitive production of the stage adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic story, it would have to be South Coast Repertory’s. This is the 38th annual production. As he has for all 37 previous productions, Hal Landon, Jr. returns to play Ebenezer Scrooge. Appropriately enough the show runs through Christmas Eve.
If you’re thinking “Bah, humbug” about this holiday tradition, you might reconsider given the amount of time the actor player Scrooge has lived with this most uncompassionate of characters.
As Hal Landon, Jr. told me when I interviewed him in 2013, “When I first did [the part] I’d arrive 90 minutes earlier to draw in age lines and now they are already there. It’s become easier to immerse myself in the part and the moment-to-moment experience of Scrooge that I’ve never been able to do in other roles. I know the lines so well I don’t have to re-learn them. My concentration could be solely on living the life of Scrooge. To get what I’ve gotten from it, the chance to play one of the all-time great parts; it’s really a great role.”