A Christmas Carol 2025, Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price.

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

“Some day soon we all will be together….”

This week, actually, the festive season onstage can now officially begin.

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•Ebenezer Scrooge (John Ullyatt), a misanthrope with a frozen heart will stride briskly onto the Citadel’s Maclab stage in a pinstripe suit, scattering Bah! Humbug!s instead of Christmas bonuses around him. And a last-minute  ghostly intervention on Christmas Eve will return him to the joy of human connectivity.  

After 25 years, there’s no way we Edmontonians can have ourselves a ‘merry little Christmas’, as the wistful song goes, without a lavish Citadel production of A Christmas Carol onstage. That’s just how it is here, a bona fide holiday tradition since 2000.

It began with 19 years of Tom Wood’s Victorian era version. Returning Thursday is the seventh iteration of David van Belle’s post-war adaptation, which re-locates the 1843 Dickens novella ahead a century and across the Atlantic (with a secular songbook to match).

The production created by Daryl Cloran and directed this year and last by Lianna Makuch is a return haunted by the tragic absence of Julien Arnold, one of our finest and most loved theatre artists, who passed away a year ago during show previews. He was an unforgettably skilled, dimensional, joyful presence in the Christmas Carol company in so many roles — starting with a quintessential portrait of the lovable and beleaguered family man Bob Cratchit and including most recently the magnanimously extrovert host Mr. Fezziwig. Surely Arnold was the first Bob Cratchit ever to venture so far from type to play Scrooge, as he did one year. This year he is in the theatre as the Voice of Jacob Marley, the ghost with the cautionary message of redemption for Scrooge.

The adaptation takes us through the revolving door of Marley’s department store on Christmas Eve, 1949, where Scrooge presides as the flinty, bottom-line obsessive proprietor. If he had his way, no employee would be home for Christmas.

John Ullyatt as Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price.

Since his first appearance in the role in 2022, Ullyatt has brought substantial emotional depth to Scrooge’s rediscovery of the self he has lost along the way. He’s back to lead a cast of three dozen in Cloran’s handsome, music-filled production, directed for the second time by Makuch. Some of the actors are returning to roles they’ve memorably occupied in the past — Braydon Dowler-Coltman as Scrooge’s younger self, Oscar Derkx as Scrooge’s cheery ever-hopeful nephew Fred, Alison MacDonald as the widowed Mrs. Cratchit, as well as Ivy DeGagné as the eerily wispy Ghost of Christmas Past and Jesse Gervais as the ebullient Ghost of Christmas Present. There are newcomers, too, including Cathy Derkach as Mrs. Fezziwig (with Troy O’Donnell as her hubby) and Mrs. Dilber.

The cast of Vinyl Cafe The Musical, Citadel Theatre. Photo by Nanc Price Photography

A Christmas Carol runs through Dec. 24 at the Citadel. Tickets: citadeltheatre.com, 780-425-1820. Actually, the festive spirit wafts through the Citadel everywhere. The Vinyl Cafe, which weaves two of Stuart McLean’s most popular stories (Dave Cooks The Turkey and Rashida, Amir and the Great Gift Giving) into a new musical continues its premiere run on the Shoctor stage through Dec. 7. Unwrap the 12thnight review here. And upcoming at the Citadel, Dec. 18 to 21, is Bear Grease: Shack Up For The Winter, LightningCloud Productions’ holiday version of their “Indigenous joyride” take on the 1978 musical we all know.

The cast of The Blank Who Stole Christmas, Rapid Fire Theatre. Photo supplied.

•In this the hap-happiest season of all, ballet companies have their Nutcrackers; theatres have their Christmas Carols, or It’s A Wonderful Life, or Miracle on 34th Street. What is an improv comedy company supposed to do? Five Yules ago Rapid Fire Theatre had the improbable inspiration of The Blank Who Stole Christmas, a high-spirited musical hit that combines scripted musical theatre and improv, Dr. Seuss and the Actor’s Nightmare, in the most impossibly demanding and unpredictable way.

The script is by Gordie Lucius and Joleen Ballentine, the songs by Erik Mortimer and Chris Borger. And at every performance, a different secret guest star arrives on stage, as a character of their choice, unknown in advance to their impromptu cast-mates. So the five actors who’ve actually been to rehearsal and learned their lines have to improvise around the hitherto unknown villain of Grinch-ian provenance. And, as you’ll glean, comic chaos ensues, and every performance is different.

The Blank Who Stole Christmas, Rapid Fire Theatre. Photo supplied.

The Blank Who Stole Christmas returns to RFT’s home base, the Exchange Theatre Friday. “Generally I’m casting folks who are skilled improvisers or improv-adjacent as the Blanks,” says Rapid Fire artistic director Matt Schuurman. “In 2022 Luke Thomson played Bruce Springsteen, and in 2024 Vicky Berg and Lindsey Walker played Hall & Oates. This year I’m casting the net wider than ever before….”

There’s hilarity (and a big challenge for the RFT improvisers) in the unlikely villains some guest stars have chosen. I mean, come on … Tiny Tim? Mrs. Claus (Jana O’Connor)? Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Alain Sadowski)?  “One time we had a local construction company buy out an entire performance. And just for them Paul Blinov did an impression of their VP as The Blank,” says Schuurman. “Nothing like having the actual guy in the audience while you portray him as a villain. Especially when he’s paying the bill at the end of the night!”

For one performance Schuurman himself, a tall lanky guy, opted to play Jack Skellington of Tim Burton fame. “I was on stilts for two hours wearing a rubber mask and have never sweat so much in my life.” He’s predicting, mysteriously that one of the Blanks will arrive on “the most challenging costume yet.”

“Some of the most fun and challenging moments have been when the Blanks have made huge choices the irreparably change the storyline,” says Schuurman. And the improvisers of the cast, in whose brains the ‘say YES’ mantra is engraved, have to adjust. Schuurman, who points to the moment “Baba Yaga (Belinda Cornish) snapped the neck of a main character minutes into the show,” loves when that happens.

It runs Friday through Dec. 21, in three versions depending on the amount of raunch and swearing. Nice: “family-friendly.” Naughty: “playful and cheeky.” Nasty: for the 18-plus crowd, “completely unfiltered, bold, blush-worthy.” Tickets and full schedule: rapidfiretheatre.com.

•Trevor Schmidt’s new holiday comedy, doing fancy footwork and aerial lifts with the longest title of the season, premieres this week at Northern Light Theatre. How Patty and Joanne Won High Gold At The Grand Christmas Cup Winter Dance Competition is all about an unexpected friendship between strangers, and involves … tap dancing. Stay tuned for the 12thnight interview with the light-footed co-stars of Schmidt’s production, Jenny McKillop and Kendra Connor. The show runs Friday through Dec. 13. Tickets: northernlighttheatre.com.

Delia Barnett and Truus Verkley in A Kidmas Carole, Puddle of Mudd Productions. Photo supplied.

• At Fort Edmonton’s annual Christmas Market, Puddle of Mudd’s A Kidmas Carole is back at the vintage Capitol Theatre Saturday through Dec. 14. It’s a family-friendly, interactive sort of holiday entertainment, by and starring Delia Barnett and Truus Verkley, and the kids join in. It’s on the Capitol roster along with It’s A Wonderful Christmas Carol, a mashup of two seasonal classics starring Davina Stewart, Dana Andersen, Paul Morgan Donald and Andrea House (Saturday through Dec. 13). For both shows, a ticket gets you full access to the Park before and after the show. Tickets: yegxmasmarket.com.

Evan Dowling in Die Harsh the Christmas Musical. Photo by Adam Goudreau

•There’s more to come. The resident parodists of Grindstone Theatre (Byron Martin and Simon Abbott) have had the inspiration of  marrying the blockbuster action flick Die Harsh to A Christmas Carol. Who would do this? Die Harsh: The Christmas Musical has black comedy hilarity for days and nights. It returns to the Orange Hub for a third festive run Dec. 11 to 28. Tickets: grindstonetheatre.ca.

And Girl Brain, the ace sketch comedy troupe, has a new holiday show too: Girl Brain, Actually at Theatre Network’s Roxy Theatre Dec. 11 to 21, directed by Bradley Moss as his farewell flourish. More about this fun in an upcoming 12thnight post.

•And mistletoe-free but holiday-friendly …

The 39 Steps, Teatro Live!’s season-launching comedy continues its madcap and ingenious four-actor romp through the spy thriller genre, and the Hitchcock film at the Varscona. Have a peek at the 12thnight review here.

The Mayfield’s The ‘90s: It’s All Coming Back To Me is your portal to revisiting the decade of Nirvana, Whitney Houston, Madonna…. It runs through Jan. 25. Tickets: mayfieldtheatre.ca.

Svitlo: Discover The Light Within, Vohon Ukrainian Dance Ensemble’s epic dance-theatre evocation of Ukrainian folkore onstage in all its strange and wonderful imagery and movement, finally arrives on the Jube stage Friday, with a cast of 50, including eight members of Gerdan Theatre from Ukraine. See 12thnight’s preview with creator/designer Larissa Poho here. Tickets: ticketmaster.ca.

The Castle Spectre, Paper Crown Theatre, Photo by Henderson Images.

The Castle Spectre, Paper Crown Theatre’s original stage adaptation of a 1797 gothic melodrama (with swordplay!) by M.G. Lewis, continues its run at the Gateway Theatre (8529 Gateway Blvd) through Sunday. Lauren Tamke directs.  Tickets: showpass.com. 

Counterintuitive holiday fare: Carrie The Musical, based on the blood-letting Stephen King novel. MacEwan University’s production at the Triffo Theatre (11110 104 Ave.) runs through Sunday. Tickets: purchase.macewan.ca.