Many Holiday Blessings Without Tiny Tim

At this time of year, it behooves us to congratulate the few American theaters that aren’t doing “A Christmas Carol.”

From the December schedules printed in American Theatre magazine, at least 18 theaters from Maine to California are sticking with Tiny Tim this season. God bless them, every one.

But huzzah for the groups that are trying something different. For example, a New York group called the Open Eye: New Stagings is doing an adaptation of Dickens’ much less familiar “A Cricket on the Hearth.”

Twin Cities theaters aren’t sticking to the same old thing. Alternatives to the Guthrie Theatre’s “A Christmas Carol” include “The Gift of the Magi” at Actors Theatre of St. Paul, “Beatrix Potter’s Christmas” at the Children’s Theatre Company and “Red Hot Holidays II” at the Cricket Theatre.

The most interesting alternative comes from St. Paul’s North American History Theatre. It has created two original Christmas shows: “A Servants’ Christmas” (ending with a double celebration of Christmas and Hannukah) and “Tree of Memory” (based on letters from people about their most memorable Christmas--often their toughest one).

Few religious plays show up on the magazine’s list. The Oakland (Ca.) Ensemble Theatre is doing Langston Hughes’ “Black Nativity.” El Teatro Campesino is performing “La Virgen del Tepeyac” at the Mission in San Juan Bautista and “La Pastorela” at Theatre Artaud in San Francisco.

St. Nick shows up in the Dell’ Arte Players adaptation of Bret Harte’s “How Santa Claus Came to Simpson’s Bar” in Blue Lake, Calif. Milwaukee’s FMT theater is doing an adaptation of Andersen’s “The Snow Queen.”

Add a sprinkling of “The Gifts of the Magi,” “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” and “A Christmas Memory,” and that’s the lot. Scrooge, thou hast conquered.

The touring production of “Anything Goes” will shut down after it plays Pittsburgh next month, and Los Angeles may not see the show.

It was to open June 20 at the Pantages as the final show of the Civic Light Opera season. But the national company, featuring Leslie Uggams as Reno Sweeney, isn’t cutting it.

It has been plagued by poor box office, poor reviews and a cumbersome set.

A spokesman for Lincoln Center said Friday: “We plan to shut it down and do one of two things, either redesign it more practically and hopefully open it again in California or store the set until we use it in California and design a more practical one for the touring schedule after California.”

But James M. Nederlander, who runs the LACLO, is having second thoughts.

“Truthfully,” he told The Times Friday, “I’m not sure I want the show. I’m not sure I want that cast. I think Leslie Uggams is a terrific performer, but the show isn’t selling and it got poor notices. Give me a couple of weeks to make up my mind.”

QUOTE OF THE SEASON. Andre Ernott, co-author of a new show called “Jacques Brel Blues,” in the New York Times, on why the script has been reshaped to minimize the issue of homelessness: “It’s hard to raise money for something dealing with issues that disturb people.”