So many Scrooges: Vancouver theaters offer twist on holiday classic for those sick of Scrooge

How many Scrooges does it take to light up one Christmas?

Take your pick this holiday season from several versions of the classic Victorian antihero who starts out terrible but winds up teachable. That’s the point of Charles Dickens’ life-affirming, people-pleasing “A Christmas Carol,” the story of one man’s rise from greed to generosity. First published as a short novel in 1843, “A Christmas Carol” has been credited as laying the foundation for Christmas as we know it today.

So it’s no surprise that, nearly two centuries later, Ebenezer Scrooge’s unlikely redemption continues to pack in audiences. You’ll find at least three different Scrooges on Clark County stages this holiday season. Two of them are coming to life via small, start-up troupes eager to get established.

“It’s a wild and crazy journey, and it takes a village,” said Chris Murphy of founding the faith-based Ekklesia Theater.

Here’s a roundup of Christmas theater in Clark County. If the well-worn tale of Scrooge doesn’t happen to float your figgy pudding, don’t despair. Also headed down the chimney are Sherlock Holmes, Irving Berlin and even the pair of scheming scoundrels who double-crossed their way into deep trouble in Magenta Theater’s original 2023 caper comedy “Floored!”

Scrooge in America

Murphy has an extensive theater background, both in Southern California and the Portland-Vancouver area, where he acted and stage-managed for years. Family needs and the COVID-19 pandemic conspired to force a long break, he said.

When it was time to return, Murphy — who is also a youth minister and local church board member — wanted to follow his dream of staging faith-based performances.

“I’ve always felt that faith and art don’t have to trip over each other. They can walk hand in hand,” he said.

“A Christmas Carol” presents exactly the right theme of possibility, redemption and charity for the new Ekklesia Theater, Murphy said.

“Why did those three ghosts visit Scrooge and give him a second chance? He didn’t deserve it, but from a faith perspective that’s not the point,” he said. “What I love about this show is the idea that it’s not too late. If you have breath in your lungs it’s not too late to change your story.”

Ekklesia’s debut show is an Americanized, adaptable version of Dickens’ tale with the generic title “Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big (Your Town Here) Christmas Show!” Filling in the script’s blanks with local places, people and things makes it an especially easy-to-love, easy-to-laugh theatrical romp.

Another key to Ekklesia’s faith-based approach is performances that are always free with no questions asked, Murphy said, although he hopes those who can pay, will. Half of the ticket sales proceeds from this show will go to food pantry FISH of Vancouver, he said.

Scrooge on the air

Starbird Theater, another company that started this year, is offering an anthology of old-school radio shows called “Christmas is in the Airwaves!”

Starbird’s presentation combines three short radio plays. One is “A Radio Christmas Carol,” an adaptation by Portland writer Cindy McGean for the Willamette Radio Workshop, which used to perform at Vancouver’s Kiggins Theatre. Next comes “Sherlock Holmes: The Night Before Christmas,” a comedy involving dueling Santas, singing robbers and a jewel theft. Not to worry, Holmes and Watson are on the case.

Finally, there’s “Henny’s Christmas Mackerel” by familiar local thespian and playwright K.C. Cooper, whose original comedy thriller “Floored!” debuted at Magenta Theater last year. Now comes part two of that story, as hapless schemers Henny and Frank are out of jail and already planning a big burglary during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

Spooky Scrooge

Magenta Theater’s take on the Scrooge story features the spooky vibe of an earlier holiday: Halloween.

We tend to forget that ghosts are the real power players in the tale because they’re the ones who know Scrooge’s sorry secrets as well as his sad future (unless he changes his ways, pronto). But not in Jerry R. Montoya’s “Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story,” where eerie transformations and sinister music underline the story’s chilling weirdness.

Berlin and Bing

Too much Scrooge for you? Find relief at Metropolitan Performing Arts, where the seasonal offering is completely different: a corny Hollywood plot, timeless music and an invitation to sing right along. “White Christmas the Musical” is based on the 1954 film starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as a pair of showbiz wannabes at a lodge in New England. The score, by Irving Berlin, includes standards like “Blue Skies,” “How Deep is the Ocean?” and the unforgettable title song.