“To begin with ...” to borrow from the opening line of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” the Civic Theatre of Allentown production is a must-see when making the rounds for your holiday season.

The Civic production, adapted for the stage by William Sanders and Sharon Lee Glassman, each year provides insights into the nature of man and woman.

Directors William Sanders and JoAnn Wilchek Basist, with assistant directors Todd Croslis and Patricia Welle, discover new, and nuanced, meaning in the classic tale of redemption.

The role of Scrooge is crucial to any telling of the tale. At Civic, there have been seasons of Scrooges, each with his (or her) take on the curmudgeon-in-chief.

Jarrod Yuskauskas, as Ebenezer Scrooge in Civic’s 2023 production, through Dec. 16, Main Stage, Nineteenth Street Theatre, carefully modulates the nasty and nice.

Yuskauskas is one of the go-to actors in Lehigh Valley theater and it’s always interesting to see what he does with a role. On the Civic stage, Yuskauskas gives a Shakespearean sensibility to “Bah! Humbug!” His is an even-tempered, rational and intellectual Scrooge, the stern taskmaster. He is mild-mannered and awe-struck as Scrooge redeemed.

Yuskauskas moves easily between the dimensions of Scrooge’s Christmas reality and that of the Christmas Spirits. He goes from the realm of dumb-founded to founded.

In this, Yuskauskas is aided and abetted by a quartet of great ghosts beginning with, yes, “Marley was dead: to begin with” as Dicken’s 1843 novella begins.

John Bracali looms large as a green goblin presence as The Ghost of Jacob Marley. He may rattle a few chains, yours and his, as he appears to glide wraith-like across the stage.

JoAnn Wilchek Basist is feisty, resplendrnt and frightening as The Ghost of Christmas Past. When she descends, exit stage trapdoor, you get the chill bumps.

Shaun Hayes is magnificent as The Ghost of Christmas Present. His bravura performance is enough to convince us, and Scrooge, that he won’t get out of this alive.

Matt Croslis is the most enigmatic as The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, which scares the nightcap off of Scrooge, and is equally unnerving to those in the audience.

The ghost scenes, interplayed with memories, personages and scenes from the life of Scrooge, are accomplished with excellent stagecraft by Scenic Designer Luke Blomstrom, Scenic Artist Jan Joyce, Props Master Jason Daniel Sizemore, Lighting Designer Will Morris, Sound Designer Randall Utsch, Costumes by Will Morris and Anissa Colon, and Hair and Makeup Designer Kim Danish.

Civic’s “Christmas Carol” has several set pieces, and it’s always fun to see how each is presented from year to year.

A favorite scene is the dividing of clothes and belongings of Scrooge. David A. Smith portrays a deliciously malevolent Old Joe. The seething cynicism played by JoAnn Wilchek Basist as Mrs. Dilber and Bob Wallace as Durdles is hilarious, while at the same time, chilling. It certainly convinces Scrooge of his own mortality. He’s not only ready to repent, he hops to it.

Anchoring several scenes is Troy Brokenshire as a delightful Bob Cratchit. Cashton Zisa Morrow is memorable as Tiny Tim.

There are many more excellent performances among the huge cast, who sing, as is the production’s custom, with the audience joining in, at the show’s conclusion.

Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” became a template for many genres of fiction in novels, theater, movies and television. “A Christmas Carol” is one-part horror, one-part suspense, one part-time travel, one-part family drama, one-part socio-economic political treatise, and one-part faith, hope and charity. It’s endlessly fascinating, infinitely-wise and always entertaining.

“A Christmas Carol” is about connection, one that Scrooge lost. He gained the world, but lost his soul, as the story goes. “Carol” puts the human in humanity, and in a restored, reclaimed and renewed Scrooge.

Civic Theatre of Allentown has kept “A Christmas Carol” alive and well on the stage of the Nineteenth Street Theater.

And so, we conclude and echo Dickens’ closing lines of “A Christmas Carol”: ‘’And so, as Tiny Tim observed, ‘God bless us, every one!’’’

“A Christmas Carol,” 7:30 p.m. Dec. 1, 2, 6, 8, 14, 15; 2 p.m. Dec. 3, 10; 2, 7:30 p.m. Dec. 9, 16, Civic Theatre of Allentown, 527 N. 19th St., Allentown. Tickets: 610-432-8943; https://civictheatre.com/