Montgomery's smart, heartfelt reinvention proves that you don't need fake snow and flying ghosts to make the tale resonate.

Now over 200 years old, Charles Dickens finds himself once again booked to perform his overly familiar Christmas tale just as he has every December since 1853. Dickens, however, has other ideas.

Perhaps he'll get his wish of simply hosting a festive holiday party. Or, perhaps, the Spirits of Christmas might intervene to give him what he really needs: a chance to rediscover the beauty in his work — and the joy of sharing it with an audience — one more time.

Told in, around, and with the audience, this one-man yuletide tour de force is more festive party than traditional oration. The perfect balance of dramatic and playful, it is a remarkably artful riff on Dickens's original and a charming new holiday tradition to share with friends and family.