A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol at Spencer Theatre At Kansas City Repertory Theatre

A miser alone in a counting house, a chain-rattled warning at midnight, three spirits arriving to unsettle every assumption—Charles Dickens built A Christmas Carol as much on dread as on sentiment, and that tension between darkness and redemption gives the story its lasting grip. Kansas City Repertory Theatre's adaptation by Jason Chanos and Stuart Carden, directed by Darrington Clark, leans into both the ghost story's chill and the emotional warmth that breaks through when Scrooge's defenses finally crack.

Mark Robbins plays Ebenezer Scrooge, guiding the journey from bitter isolation through the visitations of Christmas Past, Present and Future. Each spirit peels back another layer of the man's hardened choices, and the suspense builds not from jump scares but from watching someone refuse grace until the last possible moment. The Cratchit family, Tiny Tim and the exuberant Fezziwig offer generosity, celebration and connection—everything Scrooge has walled off—so the contrast sharpens the story's stakes.

This production at Spencer Theatre includes the Candlelight Carol, a moment of quiet musical reflection that roots the evening in live theatrical texture rather than screen familiarity. The song and the local cast give this holiday tradition a Kansas City identity. Mark Robbins’s Scrooge anchors a story where the Cratchits’ care for one another offers an answer to a miser’s lonely philosophy.

Fezziwig’s joyful hospitality counters the ghosts’ darker warnings, bringing celebration alongside the story’s moral reckoning. Secure tickets for A Christmas Carol at Kansas City Repertory Theatre.