Joy to the world

It’s the holiday season, and over at “What the Dickens!” they’ve got reasons to celebrate.

Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” turns 175 this year, and the Boston production of “What the Dickens!” (inspired by “A Christmas Carol”) celebrates its 10th anniversary.

In addition, this dance-focused adaptation of “Christmas Carol” moves from the 225-seat Boston University Dance Theater to the 1,100-seat John Hancock Hall, a sign of the growth and popularity of the production and the enduring power of this classic Christmas tale.

“It’s serendipity,” says Leslie Woodies, the former Boston Ballet soloist and touring star of “A Chorus Line” who has directed “What the Dickens!” for the past three years. “When the John Hancock theater became available, [producer] Deb [Mason] grabbed it, and suddenly all these new possibilities opened up.”

The show, which runs Dec. 14-23, had suddenly graduated from a smaller venue with a restrictive amount of space to a larger venue that brought the show new life and possibilities.

“My imagination went wild,” says Woodies, who was born in Brighton and attended Needham High School. “Now we can do all these things I envisioned. We’ve got new special effects this year, and I think they’ll be fantastic. The show is just much richer now.”

Deborah Mason launched “What the Dickens!” with her Cambridge Youth Dance Company, and the young troupe still performs in the production. But several years ago, Mason told Woodies she wanted to take the show “to the next level.”

“Those were the magic words,” says Woodies. “I was in.”

Over the years, “What the Dickens!” has morphed from a kind of “A Christmas Carol” ballet to more of a dance-theater piece. And although the show darts in directions that Dickens could never have envisioned – dance elements include tap, swing, flamenco, musical theater and modern – it remains a story that all Dickens fans will recognize.

We watch Scrooge arrive at work on the bitter predawn day before Christmas, open the shop and count his money. Moments later, poor Bob Cratchit pauses at the door, bracing himself in the cold of December to prepare for the greater chill of a work day under the thumb of Scrooge. Bob enters this shop with no love of his job, just love of a family he wants to support.

“I love the text,” says Woodies, with a bit of trepidation in her voice, as if she’s about to make a dark confession. “And I hope and pray that Mr. Dickens forgives me, but I felt like we needed to make it accessible to the audiences of 2018. The narration needed to be concise. We needed to capture the essence of an entire chapter in just a few sentences.”

Changing the words of this near-sacred text: It’s a move that could get her creative license revoked. But Woodies is confident that the essence and power of the story remains the same. The emotional impact is unchanged.

At the center of it all, of course, is Ebenezer Scrooge, a character that continues to resonate two centuries later. Every year, we are lulled back into his story, inspired by his journey from cold-hearted to caring, from miserly to generous, from cruel to loving.

Woodies, like all directors of this tale, is fascinated by the emotional journey of Scrooge, a character so iconic that his name is now a lower-case noun in the dictionary. She wonders how Scrooge became such a scrooge.

She notes that, thanks to the Ghost of Christmas Past, we see that Scrooge was once loved and loving. But through various circumstances, including death, “the people who loved him left him,” says Woodies. “We see the groundwork for why he became such an ugly man.”

But there is hope, even for those who appear hopeless. Woodies says the message of the story is uplifting and downright medicinal.

Scrooge teaches us that “we can’t hold on to pain and blame,” she says. “We all have tragedies and hardships, childhood thorns that stay with us. But the story reminds us we have the opportunity to transcend that. With this story, we get an example of the power of letting go. You are not healed until you can laugh and love again.”

The story speaks to that piece of Scrooge (hopefully small) within all of us, whether we work for a miser, whether we are the director of a “Christmas Carol” adaptation, or whether we are the leader of the free world.

“This story is more important now than ever,” says Woodies. “It’s a story about how people can change. A heart that’s as cold as ice can melt, and there can be laughter and joy instead of isolation, judgment and greed. I think that’s why the story has lasted for 175 years.”

“What the Dickens!” runs Dec. 14-23 at John Hancock Hall, 180 Berkeley St., in Boston. Tickets: $25-$65. For more information, call 617-616-5124 or visit www.cydp.org.