Charles Dickens' Family Holiday Classic "A Christmas Carol"

“God bless us, every one,” says Tiny Tim at the tail end of “A Christmas Carol.” It’s a sentiment everyone will share as the Nebraska Theatre Caravan’s legendary touring production comes to the Lyric, bringing an infectious Christmas spirit that not even Ebenezer Scrooge could ignore. This production of Charles Dickens’ immortal holiday tale, which has toured the country to packed houses for a record-setting 28 years, is like a three-dimensional Victorian Christmas card unfolding before your eyes, through period costumes, great pageantry, warmth and laughter. It offers a fascinating and funny view of 19th century London, from its sooty streets to its inviting drawing room parlors. It tells, of course, the story a miserable, penny-pinching old scoundrel whose life has been spent in dogged pursuit of money — at the expense of love, friendship and family. We see Scrooge’s backstory through his own eyes, as he is taken on a magical midnight journey through the past, courtesy of three nebulous but very real ghosts. Who doesn’t know — and love — the mixture of wisdom and whimsy that is Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”? The Christmas apparitions take the old man through all the mistakes of his past and into the future, where he will ultimately learn that a life spent without joy is not really a life at all. All the great characters are here: Scrooge’s humble clerk Bob Cratchit, his long-ago employer the festive Mr. Fezziwig, the chain-toting ghost of one-time business partner Jacob Marley, and Scrooge’s nephew Fred, whose unflinching optimism and delight in the Christmas season fly in the face of Scrooge’s miserly bitterness. Then there are the ghosts — of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come — each as unforgettable as the one before. “A Christmas Carol” is more than a ghost story, though: It’s all about spirit. The kind that you find inside of you at that special time of year.