Mark Cofta’s holiday 2016 theater picks

The most-produced story in American theaters, year after year, is Charles Dickens's 1843 ghostly morality tale A Christmas Carol, in innumerable stage adaptations.

McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, NJ has offered A Christmas Carol (December 9 - 31) annually for decades, but this year's production features a re-imagining by David Thompson, co-writer of The Scottsboro Boys, and 21st century special effects. Philadelphia favorite Greg Wood plays Scrooge, joined by Frank X as Old Marley and Jessica Bedford as Mrs. Cratchit, plus a big ensemble.

Hedgerow Theatre has produced a large-cast Christmas Carol (November 25 - December 24) for 24 years, but now uses a version scripted and staged by artistic director Jared Reed, who has also adapted Dickens's Great Expectations. The Walnut Street Theatre's A Christmas Carol (November 26 - December 23) is their one-hour adaptation for kids. The Delaware Theatre Company revives their 2012 production of Patrick Barlow's five-actor A Christmas Carol (December 7 - 30), an entertaining contrast to the more traditional versions.

Classic twists and new work

Other familiar Christmas stories on area stages include the Media Theatre production of the musical A Christmas Story (through January 8), based on the beloved 1983 movie, which dramatized semi-autobiographical stories by Jean Shepherd. The Walnut Street Theatre's A Child's Christmas in Wales (November 15 - December 23) is the Irish Repertory Theatre of New York's musical adaptation of Dylan Thomas's 1947 poem, staged by Aaron Cromie and starring Cromie, Scott Greer, and Maggie Lakis. Act II Playhouse's This Wonderful Life (December 6 - 24) is Steve Murray's comedic one-man version of the classic film It's a Wonderful Life, performed by Tony Braithwaite.

Jennifer Childs of 1812 Productions, fresh from This Is the Week That Is: The Election Special, writes and directs a new musical comedy set in 1943, The Carols (December 1 - 31), with music by Monica Stephenson, featuring Mary Martello and Anthony Lawton.

At the Montgomery Theater in Souderton, PA, Jason Odell Williams' comedy Handle with Care (through December 4) joins a young Israeli woman and an American man in a seedy motel on Christmas Eve.

A Wilde holiday and more

The season we call "the holidays" isn't only about Christmas, of course, and always offers a wealth of family theater. Two major professional companies, the Arden and People's Light, produce a secular family show each year.

People's Light's annual Panto — their unique take on the classic British form, which adapts a fairy tale for modern audiences — has become a hugely successful tradition. This year, Sleeping Beauty (November 16 - January 15), written by director Pete Pryor and Samantha Reading with music and lyrics by Alex Bechtel, sets the story in the Philadelphia suburbs with rock music.

The Arden children's theater revives the musical A Year with Frog and Toad (November 23 - January 29), based on Arnold Lobel's beloved stories, which they produced to great acclaim in 2004 and 2009. Jeff Coon and Ben Dibble play the title characters for the third time. Whit MacLaughlin directs.

Quintessence Theater Group in Philadelphia's Mt. Airy neighborhood is building its own holiday tradition with a world premiere adaptation of Oscar Wilde's stories for children, Wilde Tales (December 7 - 31), adapted and directed by Jeremy Bloom, with Martina Plag's puppetry.