Think ghosts and you probably conjure images from Halloween. But the most

enchanting ghosts of the year come at Christmas in the form of Charles Dickens’ classic story “A Christmas Carol.” The trio of Past, Present and Future is a frightening delight of the holiday season in Bangor when Penobscot Theatre Company treats its patrons to one of the best-known transformation tales in the English language.

This year artistic director Scott R.C. Levy has combined the popularity of Dickens with the popularity of, well, pop culture. The new adaptation, by New York writer Leslie Bramm, links the playwright’s fixation with the Beatles to Ebenezer Scrooge’s life lessons. The wacky conceit swirls the stories together like a candy cane, sparkling and sugary.

The Fab Four, depicted resourcefully by Allen Adams, Arthur Morison, Dennis A. Price and Rich Kimball, narrate the tale and, within the tale, work out their own squabbles. They are vintage “Hard Day’s Night,” and their recurring argument is taken right out of another chapter in Beatles history: whether the group should admit a woman into its sacred circle. In this scenario, it’s the brassy Milli-Magg, who wants to stake a claim for all womankind and does so by whining, arguing and flashing the bustier under her Victorian cape.

As Milli-Magg, Mikki Jordan triumphs, pushing her way into the group and into nearly every scene. Levy has Jordan mugging a lot, which works against the fine ensemble spirit of the piece. Is an upstart wannabe supposed to be the star of the show? Smartly, Jordan tones down for a silken, a cappella version of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” It’s a captivating solo, one that allows the audience to warm to her character.

The real star power, however, is the ensemble. Even veteran Ken Stack, in what has become an annual performance as Scrooge, knows when to let the story fly, when to let the cast take over and when to pull at heartstrings. Stack is as thorough as ever with his humbuggery. He also gamely navigates some pretty silly scenes, including using a sock on his hand to characterize the Ghost of Christmas Past and dealing with a lounge-singing Christmas Present. After many years of starring in more traditional productions, Stack must either welcome the change or feel as if he lost his way in a Saturday morning cartoon.

The sock scene, by the way, elicited the most laughs, mostly from children, on opening night. The audience also chirped giddily through a show-stopping, full-cast blast of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” which was so over the top it left me feeling cheered by the fact that there aren’t, say, 13 days of Christmas. What the audience underappreciated was Levy – or Santa Levy, as he calls himself this time of year – spinning holiday LPs stage-side during intermission. And while Lex Liang’s set did not inspire an opening applause, it should have. He’s still finding ways to work with the Opera House space, but he packs a lot of scenes into a 90-minute show. (Ergo, a few are a tad cramped for some of the luscious Victorian costumes Liang also contributed.)

What, if anything, does all this goofiness have to do with Dickens? At intermission, I overheard one girl in the audience gleefully said, “I don’t understand a lot of what’s going on, but I like it.” I have to agree. It’s Dickens Lite, for sure. Less scary, more magical mystery. But it’s a dickens of a show, too, which, nevertheless, left me wondering how Bramm might work the Beatles into “The Nutcracker.”

Penobscot Theatre Company will present “A Christmas Carol (A Humbug Revisited)” through Dec. 23 at the Bangor Opera House on Main Street. For information, call 942-3333.