A theater producer-director once told me, “If you’re going to do ‘King Lear,’ you must first have a King Lear.”

So it goes with “Hamlet” and other Shakespeare plays dependent on a strong lead actor.

“A Christmas Carol,” in its stage version, has an iconic Shakespearean lead role, that of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Civic Theatre of Allentown’s 34th annual production of “A Christmas Carol” has a Scrooge for all seasons in Jarrod Yuskauskas, who played the role in Civic’s 2023 “Carol.” The Dec. 5 opening night Civic performance was seen for this review.

Yuskauskas finds the humanity in Scrooge, who is not a curmudgeon in “Carol” for at least half, maybe even three-quarters, of the play in the Charles Dickens’ classic novella adapted for the stage by William Sanders and Sharon Glassman.

The Civic production is directed by William Sanders with Assistant Director Patricia Welle and Associate Director JoAnn Wilchek Basist.

Yuskauskas invokes Scrooge’s tagline “Bah! Humbug!” with the best of them. That the icy retort rejects any offer of Christmas cheer is more than evident in Yuskauskas’s delivery, so much so that you are almost bemused from the start that there should be any inkling of hope in reviving the heart of a geezer.

Yuskauskas is awakened from his bed to confront The Ghost of Jacob Marley (a startling Thomas McElhinny) and floats on the resentments of his youth to the predicaments of his present to the questionable destination of his future on the wings of the Ghost of Christmas Past (a magnificent JoAnn Wilchek Basist, rising like an Angel), the Ghost of Christmas Present (a perfectly too mirthful Julie Burchfield with a hint of the malevolent) and the Ghost of Christmas Future (an ominous Jonathan Beightol).

All the while, Yuskauskas keeps it real and believable amidst the superb magical stagecraft of Lighting Designer Will Morris, Sound Designer Randall Utsch, Set Designer Josephine Genuardi, Props Master Jason Daniel Sizemore, Costume Designers Rae Labadie and Rigby Maiatico, and Hair and Wig Design by Kim Danish.

“To begin with,” to reference Dickens, what’s in a name? Dickens’ choice of Ebenezer is downright Biblical. In 1 Samuel 7:12, the prophet places a stone after it’s said that God helped Israel defeat the Philistines.

By definition, “Ebenezer is a Hebrew name meaning ‘stone of help,’ derived from eben (stone) and ezer (help).” Samuel puts the stone in place to mark “the moment of divine intervention,” representing “God’s faithfulness and saving power, a reminder to look back on past help.”

On the precipice of Christmas Eve, the parallels of the redemption song “Carol” are palpable and remarkable.

In the Civic adaptation, the children, including Martha, Peter, Belinda and Tiny Tim, played with infectious delight by Mira Kneller, Xavier Hetrick, Evelyn Haupt and Caiden Baer, respectively, of Bob Cratchit (a lively Christopher Cocca) and Emily Cratchit (a steadfast Kate Hayes) re-enact a Nativity Scene (including a miraculously dropped, as if from on high, and caught Baby Jesus doll).

Later, Scrooge praises Turkey Boy (an energetic Colton Shupp), who delivers the turkey to the Cratchit family, as “a remarkable boy.”

Sanders, Civic Theatre of Allentown Artistic Director, marshals all the forces, elements, themes and the huge and hugely-talented cast of Civic’s “A Christmas Carol” with understanding, insight and inspiration. The classic tale of self-discovery is brought to satisfying new heights.

The time-traveling, science-fiction story of a parallel universe, originally told in Dickens’ 1843 Victorian tale, “Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas,” resonates to this day and, here’s hoping, in next year’s Civic Theatre of Allentown 35th anniversary production.

“A Christmas Carol,” 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5, 6, 10, 12, 18, 19; 3 p.m. Dec. 7, 14; 2 p.m., 7:30 p.m. Dec. 13, 20, Civic Theatre of Allentown, 527 N. 19th St., Allentown. 610-433-8903, https://civictheatre.com/