Russ Salmon, top, is Jacob Marley and Mauro Hantman plays Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol at Trinity Rep in Providence through Dec. 31.

Mark Turek

At its heart, this year’s take on A Christmas Carol from Trinity Rep is a ghost story, a dark, somewhat macabre telling that’s full of spooky sights and sounds. Ghosts pop from trap doors in swirling clouds of green fog, and Trinity veteran Anne Scurria makes an appearance as the Ghost of Christmas Past by wriggling from a white cocoon that dangles from the underside of Scrooge’s floating bed.

And the startling entrance of the tattered ghost of long-dead business partner Jacob Marley — amid flickering lights and slamming doors — is a real show-stopper, one of the creepiest moments from any past Christmas Carol.

But in the end, there was something missing in this evocative re-enactment of Dickens’ popular tale — at least that was the case Tuesday night when the so-called Holly Cast did the honors. And that was largely due to a somewhat muted transformation scene at the end of the show. Yes, Mauro Hantman’s Scrooge wakes from his night among the spirits a changed man, but the giddiness, the child-like glee that often accompanies this moment was in short supply.

Hantman, who looked and behaved a little like Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka, seemed to take his remarkable journey in stride. There was very little in the way of frolicking and kicking up of heels, very little to suggest this encounter with the ghosts of Christmas was all that life-altering. Maybe a little jig, an unfettered waltz about the stage, would have been in order.

Hantman seemed too cool, too dispassionate. What should have been a magical moment, a moment that touches the heart, turned out to be a hand-clapping song fest with the cast belting out “Peace in the Valley.”

Of course, a quirkier Mrs. Partlet, Scrooge’s curmudgeonly charwoman, would have gone a long way toward making the final moments of the show a bit more vivid. Barbara Meek was assigned the role this year but does very little with it, at least when stacked up against some of the kooky portrayals by the likes of Janice Duclos and Cynthia Strickland, who would do things like cough in Scrooge’s gruel and climb the walls when a transformed Scrooge tried to hug her.

But otherwise, director Liesl Tommy, who a decade ago took part in a Trinity production of Christmas Carol while a student at the theater, has come up with some wonderfully theatrical moments, such as when the haunting voice of Rachael Warren is heard singing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” in a darkened theater at the start of the show. Ghoulish characters gather on stage as Scrooge and Marley stand at desks obsessively counting money. Ghostly children point to Marley, who then grabs his chest and starts writhing on the floor.

It may be quibbling, but Russ Salmon’s Marley looked awfully spry to be dropping dead from a heart attack. He looked like a guy in his 20s. But as director Tommy has said, the plight of Scrooge (who is also pretty young) and Marley is not about age, but about the condition of being shut off from their fellow man.

But then there are odd little things about this show that don’t always add up, like the festive green garlands draped about the stairs leading to Scrooge’s office and his bleak bedroom. What is Scrooge doing festooning his property with Christmas decorations? Bah, humbug!

When Warren, who glides about in a white gown, isn’t singing she acted as narrator, which helped move the action along and provided welcome examples of Dickens’ fine prose.

In some ways, though, the stand-out performances in this show belong to cast members with lesser parts, such as Fred Sullivan Jr., who made things pop as an ebullient Fezziwig and a surly Old Joe, the peddler who in the vision of the Ghost of Christmas Future snaps up the few belongings a dead Ebenezer Scrooge has left behind.

Scurria was also admirable as a giggling reveler at the home of Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, and as the eerie Ghost of Christmas Past, hobbling about the stage on two protruding canes that made her look a little like a jungle creature from The Lion King.

Fans of the show will be pleased to hear that there is snow once again, but really just a dusting. Certainly there is not as much as last year, when director Fred Sullivan Jr. gave us a most traditional of Christmas Carols.

In some ways, though, Michael McGarty’s elaborate set rivals last year’s installment, with a row of Victorian structures that include Scrooge’s cramped second-floor office, a room for a trio of folk musicians, and a bedroom with a bed that soars out over the stage.

There is also a run-down structure that looks like a warehouse from which Robert Casey Jr.’s Ghost of Christmas Present emerges on a flying winged bicycle. Casey, duded up in a red felt top hat and red cape, is a hoot, a sassy kind of in-your-face spirit who comes up with some of the more memorable comic moments, as the cast files on stage singing that old Christmas pops standard, “Sleigh Ride.”

Michael Propster turned in a touching performance as Scrooge’s warm-hearted underling Bob Cratchit, a guy you can’t help but root for.

Director Tommy has said she wanted to come up with a spooky show, but not one so spooky as to unsettle the small fry in the audience. Still it seems a little too scary for really little kids, say four or five years old.

But otherwise, it’s a wonder-

ful show, even though it does not always deliver the goods.

A Christmas Carol runs through Dec. 31 at Trinity Repertory Company, 201 Washington St., Providence. Tickets are $10-$60 and children under 14 get in for $10. Call (401) 351-4242 or log on to www.trinityrep.com.

cgray@projo.com