John Simm is just doing the holiday stuff.

The great thing about Christmas traditions is that we don’t see them forming, but once they are established, we warmly welcome them each year. As in family matters, so in theatre: the Old Vic’s production of Jack Thorne’s version of Dickens’s Christmas giant is now in its eighth year and has become an integral part of the capital’s Christmas landscape. His annual USP is the brilliant casting of Scrooge; last year he rose to fame with Christopher Eccleston’s stunning performance, and now John Simm dons the Victorian top hat of the grouchy Womble.

At the risk of going over the top, well, Scrooge is about it, Matthew Warchus’ production feels a little underloved this year, as if it’s going through the motions of the holidays rather than feeling them deeply and thoroughly. While Eccleston has skillfully guided us through every step of the miserly misanthrope’s hard-won path to redemption, the trajectory Simm traces is much more superficial.

It’s hard to believe he actually learned the life lessons taught to him by three menacing female ghosts, although there is one memorable conversation with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. “It wasn’t my fault!” roars Scrooge when confronted with her dark prophecies of suffering. – Then whose was it? – she shouts back with the same fury.

Thorne’s brilliant adaptation, set on a cross-shaped stage adorned with three ominously empty doorframes, doesn’t leave much time to build the character of Bob Cratchit (Rob Compton) and his family, which becomes even more problematic if Scrooge isn’t at full strength. Thorne is at pains to emphasize how a lonely childhood and a stern father instilled in the boy a deep fear of debt, causing early industry to turn into hard-hearted greed.

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The fluid ensemble, dressed in top hats and black greatcoats, has a well-honed choral delivery that lends weight and emphasis to Dickens’ powerful words. Scrooge, we are reminded at the start of this eventful Christmas Eve, was “lonely as an oyster,” a phrase that hangs in the air from a ceiling full of tiny carriage lanterns.

The biggest pleasure of this production (besides the free pies preview) is the music; composer and arranger Christopher Nightingale truly offers a gift that continues to give even eight years later. There will be exciting arrangements of famous hymns (listen carefully for their poetic words of hope and humanity), as well as handbell arrangements for the whole party. The purity and clarity of these notes is a reminder that as we embark on the holiday journey again, the message of this story, written in 1843, remains as fresh and relevant as ever.

Until 4 January (0344 871 7628, oldvictheatre.com)