Charles Dickens came up with the idea for A Christmas Carol while touring in Manchester, which makes it fitting that the latest in a superlative line of Library Theatre seasonal shows should be a musical treatment of his haunting tale of Christmas presences.
A Christmas Carol has been staged many times before, though never quite like this. Charles Way (words) and Richard Taylor (music) have crafted a contemporary re-telling that proves to be both psychologically acute and harmonically audacious. It's the children's Christmas treat that even the discerning Sondheim fan can enjoy.
Out goes mawkish Victoriana, in come street urchins in trainers and anoraks. It sounds radical, but Way's updating is always sensitive and sometimes even improves on the original. Most enjoyable is Scrooge's dismissal of turkeys ("an American import"), fir trees ("a German import") and Christmas cards ("of no import at all"). I also don't recall line-dancing at the Fezziwigs' Christmas knees-up, but it sits in the mix here perfectly well. Michael Vaughan makes the most genial Scrooge I have ever come across, a welcome change from the cadaverous, night-capped caricatures who usually get the part. Here he emerges as a ruthless, camel-coated landlord looking to cash in on an offices-and-coffee-shop development. Humbug indeed.
Roger Haines directs with his usual panache and admirable refusal to condescend to young audiences. Some of the ghosts are actually quite scary, however. It would be uncharitable to reveal the spectacular coup de théatre by which Marley reveals himself. Let's just say you may be extremely wary of filing cabinets until well into the new year.
· Until January 17. Box office: 0161-236 7110.
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