Francis Guinan and Peter Gwinn

This Second City production is a mostly scripted affair written by Chicago improv veteran Peter Gwinn and "The Colbert Report" alum Bobby Mort. It begins as a parody of the familiar tale, with no less than Steppenwolf's Francis Guinan as Scrooge. (And how great is it to see him having fun at this time of year instead playing some tormented poor soul in one of Steppenwolf's traditional instances of holiday-season dark counterprogramming). It's smart parody, too—taking clear aim at today's uber-wealthy one-percenters. An inspired moment is a commercial break in which we see two kids expressing joy over getting lumps of coal in their stockings, and extolling the benefits of clean coal. Also, on the energy front, there's a wish for a "Merry Christmas and a Fracking New Year." A planted heckler in the audience gives Scrooge a hard time for anachronisms in the script and set decoration, which explains, or excuses if any excuse is necessary, the appearances of well-known holiday season characters like It's a Wonderful Life's George Bailey, who wanders in and out of the Scrooge scenes. There's also an appearance by Little Orphan Annie (in fact, a recent visitor to the Chicago holiday theatre scene) and a great bit in which the "Dickens orphans" protest their treatment in his novels. (Whose similarity to the striking newsies of the Disney musical playing throughout December around the corner is probably a coincidence, but even so.)

The writers twist this artistic license into knots, though. In the second half, after a 15-minute intermission, the show wanders away into sketches completely unrelated to Dickens, which wouldn't be bad if the material were good. There's a long, uncomfortable sketch of the "lost scene" from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in which the Peanuts gang criticizes Linus for his exclusionary religious beliefs, and another concerning a crude, drunken female lounge singer. The format also includes nightly guest stars. At our performance the guest was celebrity chef Rick Bayliss, looking just a little uncomfortable doing material that had nothing to do with his persona. It all ends up back with Scrooge, but this second act, coming as it does after a long intermission, by this point feels unnecessary and recalls the last half hour of a typical "Saturday Night Live" episode.

Give The Second City and the Goodman some credit for coming up with a holiday-themed alternative to traditional fare that's adult, but not so dark as the usual winter Steppenwolf fare (see Airline Highway). It seems Twist Your Dickens would have worked better in a nightclub setting than a traditional theater, though. A little more intimacy might have helped the improvised moments to land better while cocktails might have made the whole thing feel funnier.

Twist Your Dickens will run through January 3, 2014, at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, Chicago. Francis Guinan will be replaced by Brian Boland beginning December 26th. For tickets, visit GoodmanTheatre.org or call 312-443-3800.

Photo: Liz Lauren

See the schedule of theatre productions in the Chicago area

-- John Olson