A tale on two stages.

Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard

A C h r i s t m a s C a r o l

Two entirely separate flavors of the Charles Dickens classic holiday tale "A Christmas Carol" are being cooked up for Eugene stages in two different productions opening in the coming week.

You can have it sweet and fluffy, like strawberry shortcake, in the version opening Friday at Actors Cabaret of Eugene.

Or you can have it deep and flavorful, more like a rich plum pudding if that's more your taste, in the darker version opening Wednesday by Willamette Repertory Theatre.

First to the strawberry shortcake.

ACE is bringing back the upbeat, cast-of-dozens, Broadway musical version of "A Christmas Carol" that it staged this time last year to six weeks of sold-out houses.

The music and the book are the same as last year's show, but a number of lead players are different and the show is being done only at ACE's small dinner theater on Willamette Street. (Last year it also ran for several nights at the Hult Center.)

The youngest player in the 36-member cast is 6-year-old Bryce Walters, who plays Tiny Tim.

A first-grader at the Yujin Gakuen Japanese immersion elementary school, Bryce got into acting to keep up with his older sister, 8-year-old Kyra, who was Rosie in ACE's recent youth production of "Really Rosie."

Kyra is also in "A Christmas Carol." So is the kids' mom, Andrea Walters.

During a break in rehearsal one night, Bryce talked about his enthusiasm for the role.

"I love being Tiny Tim," he said. ``It's fun because I get to ride around on my dad's shoulders - well, my fake dad.'' His mom laughed. "I have a real mom in the play, and I have a fake mom in the play," Bryce added.

The hardest part, Bryce said, is not learning his lines but getting used to walking around with a leg brace as he plays the crippled child. "And I like Scrooge. He's kind of nutty. And I like the jack-in-the-boxes."

The show's book is by Lynn Ahrens and Mike Ockrent, lyrics by Ahrens and music by Alan Menken.

Other members of the ACE cast include Bruce McCarthy as Scrooge, Tyler Holden as Cratchit, Ashley Apelzin as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Kevin Boling as the Ghost of Christmas Present, Maida Belove as the Ghost of Christmas Future and Marc Innocenti as Marley. Joe Zingo is the director.

Meanwhile, a much smaller cast at the professional Willamette Repertory Theatre is polishing up a completely different adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" by David McCann.

Seattle actor Philip Davidson, a veteran of many productions at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, plays Scrooge in a version of the Dickens tale that's designed to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

"This is a ghost story," Davidson said. "Dickens set out to establish that sort of creepy, sitting around the fire atmosphere, telling supernatural stories about people coming back from the dead."

This is Davidson's seventh different production of "A Christmas Carol," and the 65-year-old actor says they're all over the map from sweet to tart.

"Some are very dark," he said. "They show how ugly the Industrial Revolution really was in London. The poverty was just devastating."

In any version, Davidson loves the character of Scrooge.

"His journey is so specific and vivid, going from a bitter old man who doesn't care about anything but money to being someone who understands the meaning of Christmas and giving."

Davidson worked for 24 seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, where his roles included Brutus in "Julius Caesar," Enobarbus in "Antony and Cleopatra," Jaques in "As You Like It," Thomas Stockmann in "An Enemy of the People" and Martin Vanderhof in "You Can't Take It With You."

The Willamette Rep production manages to stage the entire story with only 10 actors, meaning that everyone besides Davidson plays multiple roles, leading to a lot of quick costume changes and backstage maneuvering.

"People are constantly in motion offstage," the actor said. "There is more motion offstage than on."

Other cast members include Richard Leebrick, Janet Steiger Carr, Emily Gilbert, Harry Thornton, Colin Gray, Mindy Linder, Frank Muhr and Helene Morse.

Marley's ghost will be played by Scott Shirk, with some electronic assistance. Shirk's performance has been videotaped and massaged electronically so that he appears as a transparent ghostly projection on stage.

Kirk Boyd directs.

PLAY PREVIEWS A Christmas Carol What: Broadway musical version of Charles Dickens' classic Christmas story Where: Actors Cabaret of Eugene, 996 Willamette St. When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Nov. 24 and 25 and Dec. 1, 2, 8, 9, 15 and 16; and 2 p.m. Dec. 3 and 10. Tickets: $17 reserved, $14 general admission, $32.95 with dinner; call 683-4368

What: Willamette Repertory Theatre stages a darker version of Dickens' tale, emphasizing the ghost story Where: Hult Center's Soreng Theatre, Seventh Avenue and Willamette Street When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; and then 8 p.m. Nov. 24 and 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Nov. 25; 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30; 8 p.m. Dec. 1 and 2; 2 p.m. Dec. 3; 7:30 p.m. Dec. 7; 8 p.m. Dec. 8 and 9; and 2 p.m. Dec. 10. Tickets: $12 to $35; call 682-5000