It’s the Three Scrooges : Stage: Smaller troupes try not to worry about the ghosts of SCR ‘Christmases’ past.

Just about everybody knows that South Coast Repertory’s “A Christmas Carol” is close to the ideal seasonal companion. But it can also be something of an intimidator, a highly publicized production that dwarfs smaller holiday offerings.

Listen to Glenn Kelman, the director and one of the writers of “Scrooge,” an original musical based on the famous Dickens story currently being staged at Calvary Chapel in Capistrano Beach:

“Sure, you have to consider SCR when putting on a Christmas show. I mean, we know what a great production it is and we know that everybody else knows that,” Kelman said. “It may be in the back of your mind, but you can’t let that bother you too much.

“We decided to put on a totally new musical and take (‘A Christmas Carol’) in a different way. Because of that, we don’t feel like we’re necessarily competing (with SCR). What we hope is that anyone who goes to SCR might want to come down here and see what we’ve done.”

The Golden West College drama department, which is presenting its own version of “A Christmas Carol,” is also aware of SCR’s reputation but has taken the position that there’s plenty of room for good cheer this time of year.

Charles Mitchell, who’s directing his adaptation of Dickens at Golden West, believes the campus production may attract audiences looking for something unusual. And what it may lack in SCR professionalism, it makes up in collegiate enthusiasm, he said.

“SCR is very professional, and this is obviously a student production, so people come with different expectations,” Mitchell noted. “I mean, if we were doing a full professional show, we’d have to think twice about it. But that’s not the case. This show has 30 student roles, and people seem to enjoy it.”

He laughed. “Of course, it would probably be better if (SCR) weren’t doing it, but I still think we draw good crowds.”

Mitchell said Golden West’s first produced his “A Christmas Carol” in 1980 and has performed it almost every other year since. The play has gone through minor revisions as Mitchell has tried to “remain faithful to Dickens while providing plenty of roles for students.”

His interpretation is somewhat different than other adaptations, including Jerry Patch’s for SCR, in that it keeps key characters, like Marley’s ghost, involved in most scenes. Marley, Mitchell explained, journeys along with Scrooge as “his and the play’s conscience.”

Mitchell also emphasizes the story’s supernatural side. “I think this is fairly scary--we really go into the stuff with the ghosts and all that. This show probably isn’t so much for children.”

Probably most important, Mitchell wants to provide a social message, commenting on the homeless and hunger that were prevalent in Victorian England and continue everywhere today.

“Those implications can’t be avoided,” he said. “The poverty of the time keeps getting talked about (in the Dickens’ story), and the issue of homelessness in 1850s England comes up. People lived in tenements, and life was hard. . . . Looking around now, you see that nothing has changed.”

* Golden West College’s “A Christmas Carol” plays Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. at the campus’s Community Theater, 15744 Golden West St., Huntington Beach. $6 to $8. (714) 895-8378.

Being a musical, Calvary Chapel’s “Scrooge” is obviously more lighthearted. Kelman said the production is “mostly about hope and love” and strives to entertain from start to finish.

He was quick to note that the show “is not preachy,” despite the chapel setting. In fact, Kelman said, the musical was rewritten this year to avoid a religious focus and, instead, be “more secular in nature.”

“At the church we believe that preachers should preach and entertainment should entertain,” Kelman said. “With that in mind, we’ve brought in people outside the church, including professional actors from the Laguna Playhouse, Saddleback (summer stock) and Los Angeles.”

As an example of what “Scrooge” has to offer, Kelman described the opening number, “Ring the Bells.” Various Christmas carols are linked together in a full-cast sing-along. From there, the show tries to emphasize the changes Scrooge goes through in ways that are always uplifting.

“Some productions try to show that Scrooge changes (because) of fear, that he’s frightened of what the future holds,” Kelman said. “We try to get more sympathy for him by showing the depth of his relationships, that he discovers love through the love that others have for him.”

* Calvary Chapel’s “Scrooge” plays Friday through Sunday at 8 p.m. with a Sunday matinee at 4 p.m. through Dec. 20 at 25975 Delmingo Ave., Capistrano Beach. $3.50 to $8. (714) 493-4934.