Andrea Hein as the Ghost of Christmas Past in ‘‘Scrooge.”

Bah! Humbug!

At least Scrooge, the musical performed last month at the Pax River Base Theater wasn’t that way. It was a full-house, applause-getting three-night event that raised enough money ($2,900) to provide 100 Christmas dinners for junior Sailors.

What’s more, Marines from Pax River’s Marine Aviation Detachment standing at the theater door collected 154 toys for their Toys for Tots program.

Scrooge was the handiwork of Lt. Jonathan Pohnel, a P-3 aircraft commander with VXS-1. Pohnel wrote both play and songs, based on the Dickens original.

‘‘The wonderful thing is that people not only played their roles but helped out in getting everything else done,” Pohnel said. ‘‘Everybody made a difference, and we sold out all three shows.”

‘‘It was a fabulous idea,” said Maureen Farrell, director of the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society at Pax River. ‘‘What a nice community event to celebrate the holidays. The people who put together did a fabulous job.”

She continued, ‘‘What a lovely and unexpected gift to give to some of our junior Navy and Marine Corps families. The only disappointment was that I couldn’t get in the night I wanted to go. It was my own fault; I didn’t buy my ticket in advance.”

‘‘Lt. Pohnel and his bride Erica created an extraordinary stage musical that showcased our local area talent,” said Pax River Commanding Officer Capt. Andy Macyko. ‘‘My sons and I really enjoyed the performance and were amazed at the truly talented cast.”

Macyko added, ‘‘I applaud Lt. Pohnel’s phenomenal initiative that raised funds to buy holiday food baskets for junior Sailors and Marines at Pax River. What an awesome show!”

In the best tradition of theater, success came after a dress rehearsal that admittedly didn’t go well. ‘‘We were missing lines and entrances, so we added an extra rehearsal right before the opening performance,” according to Pohnel. ‘‘We had a line of 30-40 people outside as we were rehearsing, and when it got after 5 p.m. we had to let people in because it was so cold outside.”

The original plan has been to save 100 seats for walk-up sales at the door. Because of demand, that number got reduced to 75, and ‘‘within 10 minutes they were all sold. Right before the curtain went up we sold about 20 empty seats of people who apparently bought tickets but didn’t come to the performance.”

Once the curtain went up, ‘‘The show went really well. We missed a few lines here and there, but we ad-libbed out of it. The other performances were the same way”

In one case, Pohnel (as Scrooge) was with the Spirit of Christmas Future, hearing two businessmen talking of the cheap funeral. Instead of saying it would be a cheap funeral so no one would go, the actor said a cheap wedding. Pohnel ad-libbed his ‘‘Spirit, is there anyone in this town who has compassion for this man?” into ‘‘Spirit, I understand that some wedding are like funerals, but is there anyone in this town who has compassion for this man?”

‘‘About half the audience roared because they caught that he said wedding, while the other half was mystified because they didn’t,” Pohnel said.

As for the sound effects, the cues for the recorded accompaniments (Pohnel pre-recorded all the orchestral parts by using a synthesizer and overdubbing), lights and so on, ‘‘Just about everything hit at the right time, and the actors entered on time and knew their lines,” he stated. ‘‘Everybody worked really well together.”

All told, some 51 people from across Pax River were involved in the show, 32 of them on stage. Help came from many places. ‘‘We needed a second spotlight operator, and SK1 Ron Sanders came in the night before and volunteered. The former director of the Las Vegas Symphony came out Thursday and helped with the song where I sing ‘Bah Humbug.’ I hadn’t been saying the ‘g’ hard enough so it was coming out ‘Bah Humba.’ I didn’t realize it,” Pohnel said.

He also praised theater manager Suszann Gatewood ‘‘who was a great help. She set up everything we needed. We were even able to extend the stage out into the audience.”

Assistant Director Jeannie Facemire took over work on the show while Pohnel was away on missions, concentrating especially on the ticket sales and costuming. She also played the part of Mrs. Cratchit, and ‘‘when she sang the song to Tiny Tim, it was moving. She was totally convincing as a mother about to lose her child.”

Pohnel’s wife Erica danced and did most of the directing of the children. ‘‘Directing children is hard to do, because small children are easily distracted, so it requires a lot of patience,” Pohnel said.

For the first time, Pohnel had several British actors in the show, ‘‘and they really added something new. This was the first time we had actual British accents. The actors playing Holmes and Watson stole the show.”

With the show over, Pohnel went to extremes, at least weatherwise, vacationing in Florida with family in 80-degree temperatures and then being sent to Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska. Temperatures there reached minus 40 for a 120-degree temperature spread. ‘‘It’s something I’ve never experienced. You can’t spend more than a minute before you start freezing, even all bundled up with all the clothes you have on,” said Pohnel.

As for Scrooge, its Pax River career is over, even though he was approached to do it again next Christmas. Unfortunately, its next performance won’t be for another 2-3 years. Reason: Pohnel leaves Pax River in June for a sea tour as a staff officer aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65) starting in July.

On his next shore tour, to paraphrase the end of James Bond movies, Scrooge will return.