Christmas Spirit’s More Than Willing in Two Productions : Newport Theatre Center: “Wand,” an updated feel-good holiday fantasy, casts a magical spell with its colorful characters and hummable tunes.

Like a magician’s top hat, “Wand,” a holiday musical closing this weekend at the Newport Theatre Arts Center, is full of surprises.

Written and directed by Linda Ballew with music by Terence Alaric, “Wand” updates “The Magical Wand of Baledi,” a feel-good fantasy brimming with colorful characters and hummable tunes that Ballew and Alaric premiered at NTAC last December. This year’s version features a new choreography by Marie de la Palme (formerly with the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre Workshop) and several new songs.

Alaric’s tunes (especially “High 5’s and “I Ate ‘Em) and De La Palme’s dance steps are snappy, and Ballew’s story is engaging as ever. It goes something like this:

Once upon a time, in a glitzy but painfully boring New York apartment, four kids (Brian Kiser, Tyler Morgan, Katy Grumbles and Alison Arnold) acquire a magic wand from a bumbling magician named Alexander (real-life illusionist Scott Ratner). But Alexander’s rabbit (Amber Reaves) points out how much trouble the gift could cause in inexperienced hands, and Alexander tries to retrieve the wand only to tangle with Maldetto (Eddie Rivera), an evil sorcerer who has had his eye on the wand for years and who isn’t above using black magic to get it. With the wand, Maldetto sends the kids packing on their own wild-but-ill-fated fantasies, much to the dismay of Mom (Francoise Conrad). In the end, it’s up to Alexander to overcome his self-doubt and save the day, but . . . well, you get the picture.

“Basically, the theme of the story is ‘the magic is in you,’ ” Ballew said, “meaning we all have the power within us to do whatever we want.” Ballew, who has created children’s plays for groups in Texas and Oregon, has coordinated acting classes at NTAC for the past three years. “The Magical Wand of Baledi” was her first Orange County production and her first collaboration with Alaric, who has composed tunes for eight other NTAC shows.

In creating the show, Ballew and Alaric were given two guidelines by NTAC administrators. To save on production costs, the holiday story had to be told on the set of NTAC’s most recent production. And, in recognition of their subscribers’ diverse ethnic background, there could be no mention of Christmas.

“I remembered when I was living in New York with my daughter,” Ballew said in explaining how she came up with the story. “She hated it because she said it was a ‘grown-up city.’ So I had this concept of four bored kids in a boring apartment, trying to escape through their fantasies.”

The 12-member cast features seven youngsters aged 6 to 14, many of them drawn from NTAC’s children’s musical theatre classes, and five local adult actors.

“Wand” runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 at the Newport Theatre Arts Center, 2501 Cliff Drive, Newport Beach. All tickets are $5. Information: (714) 631-0288.