So before the positive effects of the new, partway-to-heaven ''Christmas Carol" wear off, let me tell you there's much to like about this coproduction by New Repertory Theatre, the Watertown Children's Theatre, and the Arsenal Center.
Rick Lombardo, the New Rep artistic director, has mounted a sprightly production that makes good use of the height (a giant Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come), width (sliding panels), and depth (multiple scene changes) of the new Arsenal Center theater.
For all the bells and whistles, though, the best moments are the more intimate ones, in soulful family gatherings or in stark glimpses of the destitute. Lombardo and his design team capture the Victoriana well, highlighting the drabness and poverty of the age without making the setting itself too grim. After all, for ''A Christmas Carol" to work, one has to believe in the possibility of changed fates, bigger hearts, and better social conditions.
Lombardo has also recast the action so that each of the actors, except Paul D. Farwell as Scrooge, portrays multiple characters, narrates the action, and sings Christmas songs; some play instruments, too. It mostly works, though the narrative can get clunky and the musicianship is often basic.
It's a fine ensemble cast, led by the wonderful Steven Barkhimer. As the businessman rebuffed by Scrooge, the good-hearted Old Fezziwig, and the Ghost of Christmas Present, Barkhimer raises the spirit of the production whenever he's onstage. And that includes playing the guitar and doing such a good job adding variations to Christmas songs on the piano that he should have been playing more.
But this is the Ebenezer Scrooge show, not the Steven Barkhimer show and -- where are you going, Ghost of Christmas Present? I can feel it. The spirit is leaving me.
I'm . . . I'm . . . a critic again.
So . . . Farwell, a New Rep favorite, never truly wins me over as Scrooge. He is uninterestingly one-dimensional as the deformed Scrooge, too bombastic as the reformed Scrooge, and too silly as the transformed Scrooge. How much better a ''Christmas Carol" would this have been had Farwell and Barkhimer's roles been reversed, notwithstanding the latter's instrumental prowess?
The singing is quite good, with excellent solos by Brett Cramp, Jennifer Hazel, and Claire Dickson. (Leigh Barrett fans, and I'm certainly one, will be disappointed that she was left sans solo.) Speaking of singing, there's a prelude of Christmas carols 20 minutes before each show. I don't know that it adds much to the festivities, but if you're in the mood . . .
If you're like me, you'll probably be more in the mood leaving the building. It's a ''Christmas Carol" rich in good will. These days in particular, that's something to cheer.
Ed Siegel can be reached at siegel@globe.com.
