The Long and LivesMany of A Christmas Carol

presentation. The Alliance’s supersized production includes 23 actors and a giant puppet. Aurora Theatre’s version is a one-man show. Some companies include bits of music, others based much of their appeal on the show’s tunes. One Alpharetta troupe plans a comic takeoff built around a troubled staging of the play.

What accounts for the continuing success of “A Christmas Carol” in its many forms? “People just love the story, the story of redemption and hope,” said Kathleen Covington, the Alliance’s brand content strategist.

Rosemary Newcott has directed the Alliance’s version of “A Christmas Carol” 17 times. She acted in it 11 times before that, taking at one time or another just about every female role, from Bob Cratchit’s wife to the Ghost of Christmas Past. “It’s been a great ride,” she said.

She’s directing again this year as the Alliance returns the show to at its home theater on Peachtree Street after a couple of years at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre while the Midtown space was being renovated. This year marks the 20th staging of this particular version of the tale, which was adapted by David H. Bell. What keeps her coming back? “I thoroughly love the story,” Newcott said.

Theatergoers tell her they come back to see the show year after year. Some make it one of their family holiday traditions. “A Christmas Carol’s” appeal crosses generations, she said, by combining ghosts, Scrooge’s redemption and Dickens’ outrage at the conditions facing the poor in Victorian England. “It deals with everybody’s needs,” she said. And it draws a crowd. At the Shakespeare Tavern, artistic director and president Jeff Watkins said the play is regularly the theater’s biggest ticket-seller of the year. It’s also usually one of the biggest box-office draws each year at the Alliance, Covington said. Watkins’ theater has been staging “A Christmas Carol” for 20 years, according to its website. Watkins says some fans come only to the Shakespeare Tavern to see its Dickens’ show. “It sells so well because people love it so much,” he said.

Of course, some theater fans may have seen all of the “Christmas Carols” they want. After all, in addition to local theaters and bookstores, the story shows up in movies and repeatedly on television during the holidays.

That’s where ACT 1 Theater in Alpharetta comes in. This year, the troupe is offering a little comic relief by staging “Dickens’ Christmas Carol: A Traveling Travesty in Two Tumultuous Acts.” It’s a play-within-a-play about a traveling theater troupe performing “A Christmas Carol” one last time after doing it over and over for 15 years. When the Styckes-Upon-Thump Repertory Theatre Company takes the stage for this show, “mayhem ensues,” ACT 1 managing director Melody Cookson said.

“It’s a story about ‘A Christmas Carol,’” she said, “and not just ‘A Christmas Carol.’” Of course, ACT 1 has staged its own version of “A Christmas Carol” in past years. It seems there’s always room for another version of the story on another stage.

Even after all the “Christmas Carols” she’s done, Newcott says she still enjoys staging the story. “It is so beautifully crafted,” she said. “Dickens did quite a job on it.”

A variety of metro area theaters are staging shows based on Charles Dickens’ novella “A Christmas Carol.”

“Dickens’ Christmas Carol: A Traveling Travesty in Two Tumultuous Acts

ACT 1 Theater, 180 Academy Street, Alpharetta 30009

Runs Dec. 6-22. Tickets: $17-$20; 770-663-8989, act1theater.com.

A Christmas Carol

Alliance Theatre, The Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree Street, Atlanta 30309

Runs Nov. 16-Dec. 24. Tickets: $17.50-$85; 404-733-5000; alliancetheatre.org.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

Aurora Theatre, 128 Pike Street, Lawrenceville 30046

Runs Dec. 7-22. Tickets: $30; 678-226-6222, auroratheatre.com.

A Christmas Carol

Elm Street Cultural Arts Village, 8534 Main Street, Woodstock 30188

Runs Dec. 13-24. Tickets: $15 online, $18 at the door; 678-494-4251, elmstreetarts.org.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

Kudzu Playhouse, Bulloch Hall, 180 Bulloch Avenue, Roswell 30075

Runs Dec. 6-23. Tickets: $20; 770-992-1731, bullochhall.org.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

The Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse, 499 Peachtree Street, Atlanta 30308

Runs Dec. 6-Dec.23. Preview performance Dec. 5. Tickets: $22-$42 ($15 for preview performance); 404-874-5299, shakespearetavern.com.

A Christmas Carol

Tam’s School Street Playhouse, 101 School Street, Cumming 30040

Runs Nov. 29-Dec. 15. Tickets: $27.50-$30; 770-781-9178, schoolstreetplayhouse. com.

A Christmas Carol

Theatre Buford, Buford Community Center, 2200 Buford Highway, Buford 30518

Runs Dec. 6-22. Tickets: $30-$35; 770-904-2740, bufordcommunitycenter.com.

Other metro theaters are staging other holiday shows. They include:

Christmas Canteen 2019 Aurora Theatre, 128 Pike Street, Lawrenceville 30046

Runs Nov. 14-Dec. 23. Tickets: from $20 for discount matinees, starting at $30 for evening and weekend afternoon performances; 678-226-6222, auroratheatre.com.

Austin Avenue, Atlanta 30307

Runs Dec. 7-31. Tickets: $12 youth, $15 adults; 404-523-1477, horizontheatre.com.

Waffle Palace Christmas

Horizon Theatre, 1083 Austin Avenue, Atlanta 30307

Runs Nov. 22-Dec. 29. Tickets: $30 Wednesdays to Fridays, $35 on weekends; 404-523-1477, horizontheatre.com.

Frosty! A Very Merry Musical! Marietta’s New Theater in the Square, 11 Whitlock Avenue, Marietta 30060

Runs Dec. 5-29. Tickets: $22.50$35; 770-426-4800, theatreinthesquare. net.

The Gift of the Magi 2.0 Marietta’s New Theater in the Square, 11 Whitlock Avenue, Marietta 30060