DANIEL RADER
From left, Orville Mendoza, Nehal Joshi, Michele Ragusa, Cathryn Wake and Kevin Pariseau co-star in the George Street Playhouse production of “Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big Jersey Christmas Show!”
The first “Bah! Humbug!” in “Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big Jersey Christmas Show!,” which is currently being presented by George Street Playhouse at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, is followed by a one-liner: “It’s French for ‘get a life.’ ”
This is one of many jokes in this frequently silly but still uplifting adaptation of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella “A Christmas Carol,” which is a welcome addition to the New Jersey holiday-show scene — especially for families with young children who may not be ready for a more straightforward version of Dickens’ story.
DANIEL RADER
From left, Kevin Pariseau, Michele Ragusa and Cathryn Wake in “Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big Jersey Christmas Show!”
There are, of course, many ways to see “A Christmas Carol” onstage in New Jersey this year. But this cheerful, site-specific new version probably takes the most liberties. It is set mostly in New Jersey — in New Brunswick, in fact, with Scrooge’s office located on the very ground where The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center now stands. It includes many references to New Jersey: Everything from Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi to Rutgers, The Pine Barrens, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and the Brunswick Square mall get worked into the dialogue, in direct and indirect ways.
The setting may be “the early part of the last century,” but there are plenty of other modern references, as well. The Ghost of Christmas Present talks about phenomena such as TikTok, Instagram and skinny margaritas and uses current slang (“sitch,” for instance, for “situation”). The ailing Tiny Tim, portrayed by a puppet, is said to be suffering from a “pre-existing condition.”
The production ends with Scrooge throwing candy canes into the audience and joining the other actors in a mini-concert of Christmas songs: “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” “Jingle Bells” (with a sing-along section added), “Feliz Navidad” and an a cappella “Deck the Halls.” In a rare example of a just-slightly-risqué joke in this very family-friendly production, the actors are introduced as a caroling group called Sons of Pitches.
Despite all the Garden State references, the show — co-written by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen and directed, here, by Greenberg — was not created specifically for George Street Playhouse. Greenberg and Rosen cleverly built it in such a way that local references could be changed to suit the venue: It premiered in 2017 as “Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big Playhouse Christmas Show” at The Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and “Ebenezer Scrooge’s BIG San Diego Christmas Show” is currently running at The Old Globe in San Diego.
DANIEL RADER
From left, Orville Mendoza, Michele Ragusa and Nehal Joshi in “Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big Jersey Christmas Show!”
In New Brunswick, Kevin Pariseau makes for a suitably grumpy but still ultimately lovable Scrooge. Four other actors — Nehal Joshi, Cathryn Wake, Michele Ragusa and Orville Mendoza — take on a variety of other parts, quickly changing costumes and deftly adopting new personalities.
Lots of comic relief is added to the familiar tale. For instance, Dickens’ two donation-seeking men, turned down by Scrooge at the start of the story, become two sisters, with one of them constantly getting words wrong: saying “nerdy children” instead of “needy children,” changing her sister’s name Gertrude to “Grapefruit,” and so on.
Still, the essence of the heartwarming story remains, with bitter old Scrooge, with the help of Ghosts who mysterious appear to him, re-discovering his lost heart, re-entering the human race, and re-connecting with the friends and family members he had previously shunned.
It is said of him:
“He wore just his slippers but he couldn’t feel the cold, so warm was his heart. The sky glowed a rosy hue he had never seen before, and the clouds looked puffy and full. And as if for the first time, snow began to fall over New Brunswick.”
George Street Playhouse will present “Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big Jersey Christmas Show!” at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center through Dec. 21. Visit georgestreetplayhouse.org.
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