At the Proscenium Theater, Rockwell Center in Makati, the holiday season has gone into full swing with the opening weekend of 9 Works’ A Christmas Carol, The Musical. This show runs until Dec. 21; book your tickets now and watch with the family and the children.

It’s the classic Charles Dickens tale brought to life via the music of Alan Menken, with lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Historically, this was the Christmas production that Madison Square Garden in New York City would mount from 1994 to 2003. Menken is popularly known for his music in The Beauty and the Beast, Pocohantas, The Little Mermaid, and Hercules, among others; and he has won an Emmy, multiple Grammys and Oscars, and a Tony - one of only 21 EGOTs.

With the classic tale such a known quantity, it’s really the imaginative staging that will appeal to the audiences that will troop to the Proscenium Theater. And they won’t regret it, as there’s a lot of bells and whistles employed to keep things alive, engrossing, and entertaining. With an audience that, each time out, includes a good number of young children, it’s important to keep them riveted to what’s happening on stage. Movement, gimmicks, lights, motion, dance - this musical has it all. Plus, it’s always smart to have children in the cast, so that the kids in the audience can easily identify with them.

The stage design, the costumes, the use of new technology and gimmicks such as hoverboards - these all add to the organized chaos of the ghost scenes, and to help approximate the street hustle and bustle that will suspend our disbelief, and transport us to Victorian London. Even add winter London to that, as it’s December, and there has to be potent verisimilitude with the weather.

Arnel Carrion comes full circle as he takes on the role of Ebenezer Scrooge - in previous stagings he played other major characters, and this is the first time he’s Scrooge. Kudos to the rest of the cast for taking on multiple characters and bringing boundless energy to each scene.

As for the musical score, at first I found the songs and music somewhat repetitive, especially from the opening and for the first half hour or so. It’s really the ghost of Jacob Marley singing Link by Link that brought me back to attention, and liking what I was watching. Done in an exaggerated ‘shades of Beetlejuice’ manner, this number was fun, frantic, and fabulous.

It was at this point that the production was asking you, the audience, to sit back and show some trust. Well-deserved trust. There were some minor hitches with the mikes and sound system that I watched on opening night, but I trust that will be sorted out in the days to come.

The ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet To Come are what we anticipate each time there’s a production of this Dickens tale, and you won’t be disappointed. It’s nice to have this production performed in a theater, with so much attention paid to choreography and stage design. The themes of compassion, of generosity, and redemption are presented with gusto, and there’s a feeling of infectious goodwill as you leave the theater. Five performances each weekend should give everyone who reads this the opportunity to watch this warm-hearted musical.