A GIFT FOR THE SEASON: ‘Ebenezer!’ is a joyful time at Thalian

Chase Harrison
Dec 15, 2025
6 min read

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,

But the stage is so delightful,

And since it’s the place to go,

Let it show, let it show, let it show!

What? I’m in a festive mood, it’s that joyful time of year! When Christmas lights are hung with care, burning brightly everywhere. When dreams of presents dance in everyone’s heads. When we come together to celebrate the days of auld lang syne and make merry!

While it may be the time where not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse, there is a LOT stirring and scurrying down at Thalian Hall. Thalian Association Community Theater has quite a present for the theater-going audiences this holiday season: A restaging of “Ebenezer!” a musical adaption of the classic haunted holiday Dickens tale “A Christmas Carol.” The musical was first staged over 30 years ago right here in the Cape Fear! Frank Trimble, a professor at UNCW, created and arranged the book, music and lyrics for the show. This adaptation truly allows the story to sing and dance right off the page and onto the stage.

The original story is nearly 200 years old; I imagine that most everyone knows the basic plot of “A Christmas Carol,” a tale of Ebenezer Scrooge (Stuart Pike), a miserable miser of a businessman. A man who finds no joy in the world but what he can take from it, notably the smiles from other’s faces. The meat and potatoes follow Scrooge's 4-hour encounter with four ghastly ghosts who warn him of the consequences of his greed and selfishness. As they guide Ebenezer through his past, present and future, he ultimately sees the error of his ways and finds a renewed sense of purpose in life. To be a better man than he was the day before.

“A Christmas Carol” at its core, and by exertion this adaption, is the powerful depiction of self-reflection. One that proves that anyone and everyone, if they sincerely want and try to, can heal and atone. It is a beautiful story with magical themes. All of which are captured to perfection within this production of “Ebenezer” under the steadfast direction of Chandler Davis.

As the curtain rises on the Thalian Hall main stage, audiences’ eyes are met with a stunningly constructed set of Victorian era London. Rows of plywood buildings, painted to match cobblestone and brickwork creates a vast sprawling cityscape. Big Ben even makes an appearance, peaking out from over rooftops for a better sense of authenticity. Designed by the director herself, Davis, and assembled by Mark Hayes and team, the set work here is but a taste of the technical treats awaiting audiences’ senses.

Quickly the streets of Ye Old London are filled with the ensemble as they zip and buzz past one another. The opening number “Come to Us Christmas” engages with a livewire energy that will grab audiences’ ears from the first note. The well-stuffed staged also serves as a perfect cover for Ebenezer to merge from as Stuart Pike takes center stage.

With a commanding presence and rocking awesome mutton chops, Pike’s interpretation of Scrooge really puts the “dick” into Dickensian. From insulting charity workers, to tormenting his employee Bob Cratchet (Nelly Holdford) this interpretation of Scrooge is not above stealing from begging children! All actions Pike gleefully enacts with this curling Grinch-like grin upon his face. Pike delivers the Scrooge solo of “Money, Money, Money” with a laser focus of a man possessed. An agent of avarice.

However, as Scrooge’s conscience grows three sizes over the story, so does Pike’s performance to match. When the Ghost of Christmas Present confronts Scrooge with his own words towards the fate of Tiny Tim (an adorable Avery Galligan) “… And decreases the surplus population.” Pike recoils at his own callousness spoken back to him with a palpable pain.

I want to stress the full range of the work Pike puts forth. The actor runs the gambit of mean old bastard, to a reformed man no longer chained by anger or his past. The full arch of the Ebenezer character is played out wonderfully by Pike. So, when Scrooge awakens from his literal nightmare before Christmas to find that he hasn’t missed the day of his ire. He is a man renewed; an energy Pike embodies with such vigor that explodes from him in the number “Alive.”

When the character is the title of the show itself, that puts all eyes on said actor. The work Pike does should have all eyes on it. However, while he ably leads the cast, the actor is well supported on all sides.

Rand Enlow plays the chain-bound apparition and former business partner of Scrooge, Jacob Marley. With lightning flashes and thunder clashes, Enlow’s Marley bursts onto the scene with great effect. A well-done reverb sound effect is added to Enlow’s voices that gives a haunting air to his Marley performance. His number “Change” has the lyric that sums the arch of the show up well, too: “Change or chains.”

Once Scrooge has convinced himself that he was simply seeing things, the next ghostly guest arrives, the Ghost of Christmas Past. A plot point for this adaptation is that it’s this ghost’s first night on the job of … well, ghosting. I mention this because at the top of the show, during the curtain speech, the announcement was made that the role of the Ghost of Christmas Past was to be played by Georgie Davis the night I saw the show. Now I’m not sure if this was Georgie’s first time on stage playing the role or when she took it over, I don’t have those details. That said, DAMN she is incredible! If this was an understudy or a come-hell-or-high-water “the show must go on” situation, I was floored by the actress’s work on this night.

When the clock strikes, the spirits trade off, and Bada Bing Bada Boom the Ghost of Christmas Present makes the scene. Portrayed as a 1940s gangster, decked out in a quite stylish red jacket and hat combo, Stephen Terry makes the most of his stage time. Terry’s number “Ain’t It a Blast” really puts the screws to Scrooge.

Normally played as a silent sentry of fate, here the Ghost of Christmas Future get a real belter of a number with “Things to Come.” Actress Reagan Blackburn’s vocal control of the song was outstanding, and she truly brought the house down with it.

On the human side of the story though is the loveable Cratchet Family, Bob and Caroline and their seven children. Nelly Holdford (Bob) and Lindsey Simons (Caroline) create an earnest warmth of love within the Cratchet home, showing you don’t need much when you have each other. During Ebenezer’s time with the Ghost of Christmas Present, Ebenezer is forced to witness how others must reap what he has sewn. Pointedly punctuated by Simon's number “In My Shoes,” where she recounts the hardships her family has overcome in spite of Bob’s employer Mr. Scrooge. It’s a solid scene that feels like an honest building block to the betterment of Ebenezer.

On the staging aspects of the production, I was so impressed with all of Logan Hayes’ choreography. As mentioned before the hustle and bustle of controlled chaos that made up the opening number “Come to Us Christmas” was very impressive. It completed filled the stage but overwhelmed the eye. A western style hoedown is possibly the last thing one would suspect to see in a proper British setting, but Hayes’ moves show up and show off well.

Also, of a most impressive technical note, just the amount of fog machines hidden around the set! Fog emits from every direction of the stage, impossible to guess just which way it would spew from next. “A Christmas Carol” is a gothic ghost story and this created a perfect heavy ambiance on the set needed for that often-skipped detail. That’s all before mentioning how the tech team makes it snow during the curtain call. Yeah, it snows, inside! I mean, talk about a cherry on top!

It’s the holiday season, and for anyone looking for a fun, festive and fantastic way to spend it with the ones you love, I can recommend no better time than the Thalian Association’s “Ebenezer.” Get your tickets now—you don’t want to end up on the naughty list, do you?