Charles Dickens Begrudgingly Performs 'A Christmas Carol' Again at Theater Wit
The premise is deliciously simple: it’s the 171st December in a row that Dickens has been booked to perform A Christmas Carol, and he’s had enough. Now over 200 years old, he’d much rather pour the punch, play party games and host a lively holiday gathering than slog through Scrooge’s redemption one more time. But as fans of the original tale might suspect, the Spirits of Christmas have other plans. In this version, their intervention isn’t just about saving a miser’s soul—it’s about nudging Dickens himself to rediscover what he loves about his own story, and why it still matters to the people in front of him.Montgomery’s Dickens greets the audience not as distant literary legend but as a wry, slightly frayed host who’s trying to wriggle out of his obligations. Past Chicago productions have leaned into the party atmosphere: audiences have been welcomed like guests, handed treats, drawn into bits of Victorian chit-chat and gently invited to be part of the evening rather than just observers in their seats. Reviews have praised the show’s “off-the-cuff and intimate” feel and its sense of a homegrown holiday gathering rather than a solemn museum piece.
Of course, the Christmas ghosts won’t let Dickens cancel his own classic. As the evening unfolds, the party he tries to throw keeps being hijacked by the familiar pull of A Christmas Carol itself. Montgomery slides between narrator and characters—Scrooge, Marley, the Cratchits and the spirits—using his voice and physicality to conjure each figure without ever leaving Dickens behind. The one-man format turns the show into a kind of theatrical high-wire act, balancing broad comedy, sly commentary and genuinely moving storytelling, and how the piece becomes a “remarkably artful riff” on the original rather than a simple parody.
What keeps the evening grounded is the emotional journey underneath the jokes. Earlier productions were praised for capturing the tension between tradition and burnout: how something beloved can start to feel like an obligation, and how revisiting it with fresh eyes can make it feel alive again. As Dickens wrestles with his own resentment at being eternally tethered to this story, he gradually rediscovers the warmth, imagination and human connection at its core—mirroring the way audiences, hearing the tale in this stripped-down, personal format, are invited to fall in love with it all over again.
The show itself has been on a journey, too. Charles Dickens Begrudgingly Performs ‘A Christmas Carol’ Again began life at The Building Stage in 2011, where Montgomery’s performance earned a Jeff Award for Solo Performance. A decade later, he resurrected the piece under the Clownshow banner for a widely praised 2024 run at The Den Theatre. Those performances cemented the production’s reputation as a one-man yuletide “tour de force,” with Chicago critics calling it inventive, charming and a standout alternative amid the city’s many holiday offerings.
As Montgomery explains, “This show is constantly evolving. Each successive season has been an opportunity to further shape the material reflecting my experiences in performance and in life. This year that process is getting a big kick in the pants. I wanted to work with a director to focus on Dickens's journey, sharpen the humor, amplify the pathos, and deepen the relationship with the audience… I couldn’t be more excited.”
For Chicago theatergoers, that means a holiday outing that feels both cozy and freshly charged—a chance to see a master storyteller inhabit Dickens himself, clash with his own legacy and ultimately surrender once more to the ghosts, the carols and the spirit of the season.
Charles Dickens Begrudgingly Performs ‘A Christmas Carol’ Again is poised to be one of this year’s most distinctive holiday tickets.
To see a list of all the holiday shows in Chicago, visit our Holiday Plays In Chicago page.