Christmas Carol

As the song goes, there's no place like home for the holidays, and South Coast Repertory's veteran actors will be surrounded by friends and family on the Segerstrom Stage for the 26th consecutive year next month. Once again, Hal Landon Jr. will don the flowing white locks and assume the miserly "Bah, humbug" attitude as he steps into the familiar character of Ebenezer Scrooge in the annual production of "A Christmas Carol." The show opens tonight and runs through Christmas Eve. And, once again, John-David Keller will be doing double duty as director and performer (as a charity solicitor)

Tom Titus The more things change, they say, the more they stay the same. Case in point: Back in 1980, South Coast Repertory was preparing to mount a new production of "A Christmas Carol" with John-David Keller directing and Hal Landon Jr. taking the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. Well, 25 years later, Keller and Landon still are doing their respective things, as they've done for the past quarter century, and Charles Dickens' classic tale, adapted for the stage by South Coast Repertory's Jerry Patch, continues to entertain local audiences.

Tom Titus The only certainties in life may be death and taxes. But in Costa Mesa, there's a third -- the re-emergence of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" on the stage of South Coast Repertory with the arrival of December. For the 24th year, this holiday classic is bringing the spirit -- and spirits -- of Christmas to local audiences, with the same coterie of performers that started the whole tradition back in 1980. What began as a one-shot production has blossomed into an annual event that may outlive us all. And even though such early regulars as John Ellington, who created the role of Bob Cratchit, and Ron Michaelson, the original Spirit of Christmas -- who played those parts for many years -- have long since departed, the nucleus of the "Christmas Carol" company remains intact.

The holiday season is upon us, which at South Coast Repertory means that it's time once again to thrust the spotlight on a crusty old miser who's having a Dickens of a time getting a good night's sleep. Yes, "A Christmas Carol" is back, Jerry Patch's stage adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens story with the usual complement of familiar faces. This rendition — the 27th annual — offers the same Scrooge, the same director and several of the same actors who have traversed the stage in this holiday treat since the early 1980s.

Fourteen-year-old Newport Harbor High School freshman Jasmine O’Hea has spent weekends and evenings for the past month in endless rehearsals for South Coast Repertory’s production of “A Christmas Carol.” “They go by very fast — but I was probably having so much fun I didn’t notice,” Jasmine said. The Newport Beach teen juggles several small parts in the production. Each year, South Coast Repertory’s annual staging of “A Christmas Carol” recruits area kids from its children and teen acting classes to become a part of the cast.

"It's the most wonderful time ..." Come on, everybody! "It's the most wonderful time of the year! With the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you, 'Be of good ... " Wait, wait, stop. That was awful. Forget the singing. But one thing we should never ever forget is our holiday traditions. Where would we be without them? In the middle of March, that's where. Two of the longest-running winter-solstice- slash-yuletide traditions in this corner of the universe -- the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade and South Coast Repertory's "A Christmas Carol" -- are upon us. Wednesday marks the 97th iteration of the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade, albeit with a tweaked name this year.

South Coast Repertory's 16th NewSCRipts season of staged play readings continues at 7:30 p.m. Monday with a new play by Steven Drukman titled "The Bullet Round." The commissioned work follows a gun as it changes hands among troubled characters. Drukman is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, The Nation, The International Herald Tribune and other publications. Neel Keller, associate artistic director of La Jolla Playhouse, will direct the piece.

Tom Titus My son Tim used to tell me he never really felt it was the Christmas season until he'd seen South Coast Repertory's annual production of "A Christmas Carol." He felt even more strongly about it after appearing in the show 19 years ago at the age of 11. Yes, it's that time of the year again, SCR's 24th annual visit to 18th-century London and Ebenezer Scrooge's transformation from "Bah, humbug" to "Happy holidays." The show opens tonight and plays through Dec. 27 on the Segerstrom Stage.

1. THE BIG TIPPER Peet's Coffee & Tea will be holding a "Christmas Eve Tips" event to benefit local nonprofit organizations. The store will provide free brewed coffee to all customers who visit the store today, and will give all gratuities that are received over the course of the day to the Kids Cancer Connection. The store is at 894 Avocado Ave., Corona del Mar. For more information, call (949) 640-6377. 2. BACK TO BASICS Our Lady Queen of Angels will hold Mass at 7, 8:30, 10 and 11:30 a.m. Christmas Day. The parish is at 2046 Mar Vista Drive, Newport Beach.

Trilogy Playhouse's 'Carol' audition date changed to Oct. 15 Trilogy Playhouse has announced its "Inspecting Carol" auditions will now be held from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Oct. 15. "Carol" is a comedy about a struggling theater company performing Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." Performances will run Nov. 30 through Dec. 15. Auditions, previously announced for Oct. 7, will be for three women and one man between the ages of 30 and 40, one woman and one man between 40 and 60, three men between 40 and 50, two boys between 11 and 16 and one African-American man between 30 and 40. Actors should prepare a short comedic monologue and bring a picture and resume.

In a foreboding first message as your new school board president, David Brooks did his best Ebenezer Scrooge "Bah! Humbug!" impersonation by saying, "We don't need critics" who are "bad-mouthing schools. " So to the many educators and others who have emailed me privately with your outrage, and to those who appear before the board to complain, Brooks would like you to put that coal back in the scuttle and get back to work. Teachers, you'll get back to work on Jan. 2, while the rest of the country observes a federal holiday.

After staging the same production for more than three decades, a theater company might be expected to "phone it in," to go through the well-established motions that have worked for longer than most of their actors have been on this planet. Not South Coast Repertory. Its 32nd annual production of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is, if anything, stronger and more immediate, even more visceral than those which have gone before. The faces (except for Scrooge's) change over time, but the overall effect grows exponentially.

Hal Landon Jr.'s yearly portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge has become as constant and cozy a yuletide apparition in Orange County as re-runs of "It's a Wonderful Life" on TV. For the 32nd time since 1980, the veteran actor is incarnating the lead role in South Coast Repertory Theatre's annual holiday season run of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. Regular performances open at 7:30 p.m. Friday and continue through Christmas Eve. Landon needs not worry anymore about having to audition for the part.

As guests arrived at Hoag Hospital’s 43rd annual Christmas Carol Ball at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Laguna Niguel, they were greeted by young girls ice skating on a rink in the Ritz Courtyard surrounded by palm trees. It was pure Christmas in California, sublime contrasts and fabulous winter décor to put revelers in the mood on a balmy 65-degree December evening by the Pacific Ocean. As the glamorous contingent arrived at the Ritz Carlton and paraded down the grand stairwell to the lower level ballroom, the gloved wait staff stood at the ready with silver trays brimming with Christmas canapés.

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” — Ebenezer Scrooge “A Christmas Carol” With the weather dropping below freezing this December, thoughts have turned to all things holiday. Here are some Charles Dickens-inspired choices for a splendid season: Irish Dickens Dinner, Muldoon’s Irish Pub and Country Kitchen Muldoon’s in Newport Beach has become well-known for its annual Irish Dickens Dinner, which takes the Victorian theme to the hilt, from bodices to bangers and mash.

For local theatergoers, it’s time to trim the tree and break out the holly. Their Christmas season officially starts this weekend. That’s when three Costa Mesa theater groups bring up the lights on their holiday shows, highlighted by the 30th annual production of “A Christmas Carol” at South Coast Repertory. Two collegiate theater programs join the merriment as Orange Coast College stages its annual “Old-Fashioned Christmas Melodrama and Ice Cream Social” and Vanguard University mounts the comedic “Inspecting Carol.

Fourteen-year-old Newport Harbor High School freshman Jasmine O’Hea has spent weekends and evenings for the past month in endless rehearsals for South Coast Repertory’s production of “A Christmas Carol.” “They go by very fast — but I was probably having so much fun I didn’t notice,” Jasmine said. The Newport Beach teen juggles several small parts in the production. Each year, South Coast Repertory’s annual staging of “A Christmas Carol” recruits area kids from its children and teen acting classes to become a part of the cast.

With the opening of “A Christmas Carol” at South Coast Repertory for the 29th time and “It’s a Wonderful Life” in its second go-round at Vanguard University, the holiday season definitely has arrived. At South Coast Repertory, actors come and actors go in the annual “Carol.” Long-timers John Ellington, Don Took, Ron Boussom, Howard Shangraw and Martha McFarland aren’t with the show any more, but two elements remain unchanged — director John-David Keller doing another Hitchcockian turn and actor Hal Landon Jr. once again bringing Ebenezer Scrooge back to life.

Actor Timothy Landfield showed up sporting an eerie-looking translucent Halloween mask, a wig and angel wings on the first day of rehearsal for South Coast Repertory’s production of “A Christmas Carol.” Another year he arrived clad in a tutu and the fat suit he wears for his role as the Ghost of Christmas Present. It’s an annual tradition of sorts for Landfield, who has been a part of South Coast’s “Christmas Carol” cast for the past eight or nine years — he’s lost count.

COSTA MESA Tree nearly 100 feet tall lit with more than 20,000 lights South Coast Plaza started the holiday season this year with the annual lighting of the Segerstrom Family Christmas Tree at Town Center Park on Monday. The tree, a white fir more than 95 feet tall, was adorned with more than 20,000 lights during a period of several weeks, organizers said. Students from the Orange County High School of the Arts also performed carols and musical theater for the crowd, estimated to be approximately 1,000 people.