‘Tis the season for New Brunswick-style Christmas corn in “Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big Jersey Christmas Show!”

Let’s face it. The latest production at New Brunswick’s George Street Playhouse is not “Twelfth Night”. It’s not Noël Coward or George Bernard Shaw. But it is Christmas-themed comedy. An adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, it’s liberally sprinkled with allusions to New Jersey locations, customs, and attractions, and the city of New Brunswick in particular. It’s Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big Jersey Christmas Show!

Most of the comedy comes from the hard-working cast of five under the direction of Gordon Greenberg. Greenberg, with co-writer Steve Rosen, uses the familiar framework of the Dickens story to guide the action along, dropping references keyed to a New Jersey audience. One of the show’s new plot points is that New Brunswick has no theatre, a fact at first approved by the mean-spirited Scrooge (Kevin Pariseau). The rest of the cast portray all the other characters in the story, at times making lightning-fast costume changes and backstage crossings. 

Nehal Joshi, a loose-jointed, limber comedian, is young Ebenezer at all ages, and Tiny Tim (with the help of a puppet body), and Scrooge’s nephew Fred. Cathryn Wake, a lovely actress with an impish streak, takes on the roles of Scrooge’s fiancée, Lavinia; a selfie-obsessed hopped-up Christmas Present from 2025; and a malaprop-ridden charity solicitor, Gertrude Saint. Michele Ragusa, a sharp-witted actress familiar to George Street audiences, is an acerbic Christmas Past; both Mrs. Cratchit and Fred’s wife; and Prudence Saint, Gertrude’s sister. Orville Mendoza, stocky, jolly, and apparently game for anything, shines as Bob Cratchit; both of Fred’s children Jack and Jean; and Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s dead partner.

As an ensemble, Joshi, Wake, Ragusa, and Mendoza, dressed in head-to-toe black and hidden in upstage shadows, use their echoing voices to create the spirit of Christmas Yet to Come — and with the help of some body portraits pulled up from the stage floor, those same voices create a somewhat off-pitch group of carolers.

Not that this Christmas show is all fun and laughs. There are two startlingly serious scenes that ground this work and remind us all of the regrets and consequences of past actions. First is the scene where Lavinia breaks off her engagement with Scrooge just as they are to take a ship to build a life together in the promised land of New Jersey. The other is the death of Tiny Tim, a sure-fire emotional gut punch in every version of A Christmas Carol. The cast handles these scenes with unexpected poignancy.

Speaking of the vocal work of the cast, a big shout out goes to the sound designs of Bart Fastbender and Christopher J. Bailey, as well as the lighting designs of Rob Denton, to create atmosphere and a sense of place during the proceedings. Adam Koch’s scenic design is an interesting example of using rolling furniture — chairs, desks, tables, even doorways and window sills — to create, with the audience’s imagination, offices, homes, schools, and even the streets of London — oops, New Brunswick — to add to the show’s store of magic.

Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big Jersey Christmas Show! is not a great work of theatre literature, nor does it intend to be. What it is, is a silly, funny, sometimes touching entertainment aimed to bring some joy to holiday audiences. And it’s something you can bring the kids to see! If this is your cup of tea for the holiday season, make the trip down to New Brunswick to take in Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big Jersey Christmas Show!

Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big Jersey Christmas Show! is presented by the George Street Playhouse at the Arthur Laurents Theatre in the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center through Dec. 21, 2025. For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to georgestreetplayhouse.org.