As I sat down to watch South Coast Rep's fine production of "A Christmas Carol," it occurred to me that there are twelve days of Christmas and twelve steps in a recovery program. What better framework, then, with which to revisit the show than as a Yuletide rehab story set in Victorian England?

Although we can survive 40 days without food and three days without water, we apparently can't go but 35 seconds before we need to make sense of something (threats, social interactions, things in a museum) around us. That's the problem with "Rudy's Ramp of Remainders."

An annual dream. The holiday season. Presents bought and wrapped, trees decorated, houses lit. What better time, then, for the Long Beach Ballet to perform a visionary Nutcracker, their 30th production of the holiday classic?