Of all the great things Charles Jones did to lift the Omaha Community Playhouse above the rest, his adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novella “A Christmas Carol” is arguably the greatest.
Now in its 49th year, the iconic show’s total attendance is approaching 700,000 in Omaha alone. Add audiences from coast-to-coast “Carol” tours — as many as three tour casts each year from 1980 to 2016 — and overall box office could yet top 4 million.
At one time, “A Christmas Carol” generated nearly a quarter of OCP’s annual earned income. It’s still the top seller nearly every season.
And those tours by the Playhouse’s professional arm, the Nebraska Theatre Caravan, reached over 600 locations in 49 states and four Canadian provinces, giving the Playhouse a national reputation for excellence.
“A Christmas Carol” was never meant to be more than a once-and-done production in 1976. That is, until audiences clamored for more. And more.
It’s become a beloved family holiday tradition, stretching across four generations.
What’s the reason for its phenomenal success?
Some would say it’s Jones’ script, which he banged out in a marathon three days at his family’s condo near Immanuel Hospital. Jones focused on Scrooge’s personal redemption, a transformation fueled by the love that infuses every Christmas season. He accented joy, not darkness.
“He would have seen the whole show in his head before writing it,” said son Geoffrey Jones, who ran a follow-spot on opening night at age 12. “He could see all the moving parts in his mind.”
But Geoffrey said it was more than his dad, crediting the entire original creative team: writer-director Jones, scenic and lighting designer Jim Othuse, choreographer Joanne Cady and music director John Bennett, who arranged and conducted the score.
“Everybody talks about Charles,” he said, “but without Joanne and Jim and John he was not nearly as good. The strength of that creative team, to me, is staggering, colossal talents all challenging one another to do their best.”
The miracle, Geoffrey said, is that Jones put that powerhouse team together within two years of arriving at the Playhouse.
He brought Othuse with him from Columbus, Ga., where the two had worked together at the Springer Opera House for seven years. Dreaming up “A Christmas Carol” was “a collaborative effort, adjusting ideas,” recalled Othuse, who is still designing at the Playhouse after 50 years. “Everything would be run past Charles, as you would with any director.”
While Jones precisely arranged his large cast in a now-iconic opening tableau, Othuse created a charming street of Victorian shops, caressed by a gentle snow. It’s a Currier & Ives print come to life.
“They would open the curtain, and the audience just went nuts it was so beautiful,” said Janet Ratekin Williams, who played violin in the original orchestra.
Cue Bennett’s chorus, harmonizing on “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” as the characters spring into action. Bennett chose period English carols, orchestrated to enhance the mood and smooth transitions. Bennett, too, stayed to music-direct many, many Jones musicals.
Next came simple underscoring (flute and cello) for a pair of wind-up dancing dolls. Cady’s opening dance for “Carol” was inspired by then-popular duo Shields and Yarnell, who performed on TV as a pair of stilted robots.
Joanne Cady, who grew up in Council Bluffs, started dancing at age 3. After lessons with Cora Quick, she headed to New York City, soaking up Broadway choreography for five years before starting her own Bluffs dance school. Jones hired her for “The Music Man,” his first OCP musical in 1974. She became his full-time choreographer, staying 30 years.
“I knew what was good and what wasn’t,” Cady said shortly before her death in 2022. “It was such a pleasure to work with somebody on your level, and Charles was.”
While Kathy Wilson designed the original costumes for “A Christmas Carol,” they were built on a budget — not to last. By year five, they were falling apart, and Jones decided to shift the time period from 1880 to 1840, when Dickens wrote it. It fell to Denise Ervin, who had assisted Wilson since year one, to create new, authentic and launderable costumes. Twice over the years Ervin reclothed the large “Carol” casts.
Ervin, who learned her craft at the Playhouse, stayed more than 20 years, creating dazzling duds for “Chicago,” “Evita” and many more titles. “I would never have gotten into the theater if it hadn’t been for Charles,” she said. “He gave me my chance, and it’s why I’m still doing what I’m doing.”
Jones had one more secret weapon in his creative arsenal: his wife.
“Eleanor was quite the muse for Charles,” said Carolyn Rutherford Mayo, who managed the Caravan tours from 1977 to 1994. While acting for Charles back in Georgia, Mayo lived in the Joneses’ basement.
“I remember visiting their home at Christmastime, the big trees,” she said. “Charles loved Christmas. It was his favorite time of year.”
Eleanor Jones had run a children’s theatre at the Springer while Charles directed the main season. She staged a version of “A Christmas Carol” there, and it was a big hit.
“He liked it, thought he could do better,” Geoffrey recalled. “Then he saw the movie version with Albert Finney while in London. We (the family) had to go see it, like, three times. Once again, he thought he could do it better.”
Five years later, he did.
“Charles was a big procrastinator,” Geoffrey said. When his dad finally sat down to a typewriter on a card table, it was mid-October 1976. It didn’t leave enough time for rehearsal, rewrites or fine-tuning the lengthy, technically demanding show. Preview night was a minor disaster.
But the audience loved it instantly. And with acting talent that often stayed in the show for years — Dick Boyd and then Jerry Longe as Scrooge, Tom Wees and Al DiMauro as Marley, Mary Peckham and then Sue Perkins and Julie Huff as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Marianne Young as Mrs. Cratchit, Bob Snipp as the Ghost of Christmas Present — “Carol” had unimaginable staying power.
“I’ll tell you, nobody could put more magic into that opening street scene” than Jones, Othuse, Cady and Bennett, said actor Cork Ramer, who played Scrooge on tour for 18 years.
“When that team was doing a show, they were pros,” dancer-actress Lori Ecklebe Shomaker agreed. “This was Omaha’s Little Broadway.”
August 5, 2019
November 6, 2019