'Christmas Carol' a present the whole family will like

Tiny Tim (Analise Marin) and Scrooge (Adam MacDougall. (Courtesy photo)

When it comes to entertainment value Rochester Opera House’s “A Christmas Carol” is no “Scrooge.”

The fast-moving musical has enough Christmas songs and original scores to fill your stocking and then some, with production numbers that will make you tap your toes, laugh, and yes, even get a lump in your throat.

This production shifts the classic Dickens Christmas morality play from the 18^th-century streets of England to 20^th-century America, where Ebenezer Scrooge runs a restaurant where he ruthlessly rules over his employees, spurning all things Christmas and good will toward man.

Scrooge seems destined to continue his miserable miserliness, but his dead partner Jacob Marley returns Christmas Eve to send him on a journey through time using the ghosts of past, present and future to show him the error of his misanthropic ways.

When the Ghost of Future shows him his former employees and friends laughing about an acquaintance’s death and points to Scrooge’s tombstone in answer to who they’re referring to, the “Oh Holy Night” lyrics of “Fall on your knees” ring out, causing Scrooge to writhe and wail in agony at the base of his own grave and finally realize the error of his ways, all to the good of the Cratchit family, Tiny Tim a and Scrooge’s soul, too.

A joyous overture celebrates Scrooge’s metamorphosis.

Throughout the play, Adam MacDougall is magnificent as Scrooge, with a fine, surprisingly strong voice, convincing as a tyrannical, uncharitable boss; dancing madly at a sockhop in the 50s and at the end of the play as a generous and doting employer and family member.

Supporting cast members Jerard-James Craven, who plays Fred and young Ebenezer; and Todd Fernald, who plays Cratchit, are also convincing. Fernald emotes tremendous passion in his scenes with – and painfully without - his ailing child Tiny Tim.

Greg Bell as Jacob Marley had some wonderfully, comedic moments, but struggled enunciating lyrics in his low register even while being superb at other times. There were a few other little flaws too small to mention, nothing some tinsel can’t fix.

Meanwhile, strong voices, fluid scene changes, wonderful costumes and imaginative sets more than make up for any negative minutiae this Scrooge may have seen.

The production solidly delivers what this classic play has for centuries: the Christmas spirit to all who partake.

A Christmas Carol continues at the Rochester Opera House tonight, Saturday and Sunday.

For info go to http://rochesteroperahouse.com.