OKLAHOMA CITY — For many in Oklahoma City, the holiday season doesn’t officially begin until Lyric Theatre kicks off their beloved annual production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
Well, string up the lights and trim the tree, because the show finally launched its 2024 run on Saturday, November 23rd to a packed house ready as ever for the journey through greed, ghosts, time travel, and redemption at Christmastime.
This year’s show continues the brand new production that Lyric unveiled in 2023, complete with flying wirework, bursting ghostly entrances, and a terrifyingly silent, towering puppet in the role of “Christmas Yet-to-Come.”
But it’s not just the sets, the staging, and the remarkable traditionalist carols and dancing that are returning for another year. It’s also the lead actor, D. Lance Marsh, in the timeless role of Ebenezer Scrooge, history’s greatest Christmas curmudgeon.
Marsh first stepped into the role in 2023, bringing a larger, more intimidating physicality to a character that many might expect to be frail and elderly.
But through Marsh’s stature and powerful, booming voice, Scrooge becomes a figure for the supporting cast to be genuinely fearful of, rather than just fearing the financial consequence he might set upon them.
“I made the choice very early on to say ‘well, they cast me, so they must want a big physical presence,’” Marsh told Free Press by phone following the opening night of the 2024 production.
“I actually don’t think there’s anything in the original Dickens story that says that he has to be frail,” Marsh said, “but I’m six-foot-two and two hundred fifty pounds, so I’m always going to be a large, physical presence, and I just had to figure out how to make that presence work.”
Of course, it’s not just the intimidating grumpiness or the imposing physicality that sets Marsh’s Scrooge apart from his castmates. It’s also that he’s the one and only figure onstage who doesn’t participate in the show’s infectious song and dance.
The way that Lyric’s “A Christmas Carol” uses music throughout its story is unique in that it’s never the kind of show tunes or showstoppers you might associate with musical theater. Rather, the songs are all traditional yuletide carols and Christmas hymns, all sung naturally by the characters as they enjoy the company of friends and family.
Even without original songs or dramatic solos, music remains the focus of this “Carol,” particularly as a way for the ensemble to express joy, gratitude, and faith in a time beset by poverty, labor, and the kind of greed and selfishness that Scrooge himself represents.
And that’s exactly why Marsh doesn’t get in on the action (at least, not until the ending curtain call.)
“He hates cheerful music,” Marsh said about Scrooge. “Music affects you at a physical level and sometimes bypasses the brain to go straight to the body, and that’s something that Scrooge would find distasteful. So he wants nothing to do with it.”
That’s certainly true of the music in this show. Even if you’re not normally a fan of the more solemn, religious Christmas songs, you’re still bound to be enraptured by the harmony and power of the chorus and their carols throughout.
But for Scrooge, the appreciation of that joy and power in the music is a gradual arc, relegating him mostly to the sidelines of the musical numbers as simply a spectator or unwilling audience.
“It doesn’t feel like I’m just standing up there listening to music, though,” Marsh said. “I’m reacting to the story. The music in this show is action. It moves. So it’s pretty easy to react to it that way.”
And when the music finally does penetrate Scrooge, it brings that same power with it in what is surely the show’s most important musical moment.
“When he’s finally back in his bedroom and he finally comes to the full transformation,” Marsh said, “there’s that wonderful choir moment where they’re coming down the aisle as well, just before he starts to say ‘okay, I’m going to be a new man.’”
In Lyric’s production, it’s music itself that represents joy, community, and humanity, and the moment that Scrooge comes to his epiphany is the moment that he finally allows music back into his life and into his heart.
“It’s this really beautiful hymn that they sing, and in that moment, Scrooge has really changed his view of the music,” Marsh said. “And I let that really affect me on stage.”
Lyric Theatre’s “A Christmas Carol” runs now through December 27th at their Lyric at the Plaza Theatre. For showtimes, tickets, and more, visit lyrictheatreokc.com.
You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
