Stephen Thorne as The Ghost of Christmas Past and Brian McEleney as Scrooge in Trinity Rep’s production of A Christmas Carol.

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Mark Turek

It’s Dickens with all the trimmings at Trinity Rep. After last year’s minimalist version of A Christmas Carol, director Fred Sullivan Jr. has produced a warm and magical postcard of Dickensian England.

This is a kid-friendly show for traditionalists, people who like their Christmas Carol the old-fashioned way, with a set and costumes that are right out of the London of yore. And there is snow, plenty of it, even out in the audience.

The cast is also first-rate, with Brian McEleney turning in an endearing performance as miserly old Ebenezer Scrooge at Tuesday’s press opening of the Holly Company. William Damkoehler plays Scrooge in the Ivy troupe.

This is company member Sullivan’s first turn as a director at Trinity, and he has done an impressive job, coming up with a detail-rich, often funny retelling of the Dickens classic. There are moments when the timing and the emphasis on a phrase had the audience tittering and applauding. When a born-again Scrooge awakes from his night with the spirits and encounters his charwoman, Mrs. Partlet, there is an amusing moment when they try to hug but can’t quite manage physical contact.

Sullivan has tweaked some lines, messing with the text a bit. And he has made at least one wholesale change, in the final scene. And that is not necessarily an improvement. Usually, that takes place in Scrooge’s office, when Bob Cratchit sneaks in late after a previous day of Christmas merriment and a stern-looking Scrooge toys with him, pretending he’s about to fire him when in fact he plans to give Bob a raise. But in Sullivan’s version, Scrooge bursts in on the Cratchit’s Christmas dinner, after dispatching the prize turkey to their home, and tells Bob he is there to help him and his family. He even goes so far as to assure Bob he plans to make him a partner in his firm, along with his nephew.

That makes for a more compact conclusion, but ends up sacrificing one of the most charming scenes in the play.

But generally, this is a fairly faithful retelling of the Adrian Hall-Richard Cumming adaptation, concise and to the point.

Unlike a lot of previous productions, the ghost of Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s dead business partner, does not hover in the air, but keeps his feet firmly planted on the ground, which doesn’t have quite the feel of an apparition and probably is not going to play as well for the 8-year-olds in the audience.

Marley, who is played by Sam Babbitt, a veteran of Pawtucket’s Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre, is not quite so cadaverous as past Marleys, not quite so menacing. He comes to Scrooge more as a buddy, and sits down with him on his bed like an old friend and tells him its time to change his ways.

Much of the magic in this new production comes from William Lane’s ultra-realistic set, which captures a sooty London street down to every brick and stone. Lane, of course, is the theater’s longtime costume designer, but he studied set design and when Sullivan was given the nod to direct, he asked Lane if he’d do the set.

I suppose there are those who like their Christmas Carol’s more fantastical, more other worldly. Lane’s set, with its imposing stone arch and stucco tavern that serves as Scrooge’s headquarters, doesn’t leave much to the imagination. But it’s wonderfully evocative of the time the story takes place.

A stairway leads into the audience of Trinity’s upstairs theater so that Scrooge can stroll through the house as he retires to his bedroom for Christmas Eve. And a row of seats has been cleared from the middle of the theater as a landing pad for an air-borne Ghost of Christmas Past. He’s played by a mischievous Stephen Thorne, dressed as a Harlequin clown, who soars over the audience doing somersaults along the way.

McEleney, who has added a certain creakiness to his step, has been careful not to make a caricature out of Scrooge, just to give us a very human broken man who has cut himself off from humanity. He does get religion fairly quickly, though. With his first encounter with the Ghost of Christmas Past he seems awfully contrite.

There is no particular punctuation for the moment of redemption either, no music, no special lighting, just Scrooge out there on a bare stage being reborn.

“I feel like a baby,” he coos.

Sullivan has done quite a bit of directing at the Gamm, so he has enlisted some of the actors he’s worked with there, like Babbitt. Also on hand Tuesday was Gamm artistic director Tony Estrella as a sweet-natured Bob Cratchit, who handles the scene in which Tiny Tim has died very tastefully, without blubbering. He also did one of the best jobs maintaining his cockney accent. Jeanine Kane, another Gamm regular, was a cheery Mrs. Cratchit.

Janice Duclos was a hoot as Mrs. Partlet, prattling on in an Irish brogue and swigging from a flask as she sells Scrooge’s belongings to Old Joe. Stephen Thorne doubled as a chipper nephew Fred, who refuses to give up on his old uncle.

Hunky Kelby T. Akin made the perfect Ghost of Christmas Present, with a bounteous beard that changes color as the scene ends. And Tom Gleadow expertly filled a couple of comic roles, including that of Fezziwig wearing a ridiculous rust-colored wig. Teddy McNulty was a cute-as-a-button Tiny Tim.

Traditionalists will also be glad to hear that the roving band of street musicians is back after an absence last year. Tuesday it was Chris Turner on a variety of instruments including harmonica, wife Rachel Maloney on fiddle, and guitarist David Tessier.

There is, of course, a lot that’s familiar about this Christmas Carol, but a lot that is special, too. It’s the kind of show that’s worth catching if you haven’t been to Christmas Carol for a while and need an excuse to return.

A Christmas Carol runs though Dec. 30 at Trinity Rep, 201 Washington St., Providence. Tickets are $25-$60, with children’s prices starting at $12.50 for post-Christmas shows. Call (401) 351-4242 or visit www.trinityrep.com.

cgray@projo.com