COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS: There’s no surer sign that Christmas is on its way than seeing that the Dallas Theater Center has opened its annual production of A Christmas Carol. The trick with these evergreen shows is keeping them fresh both for the performers and for the audience. In his dallasnews.com review, Lawson Taitte says the mission is accomplished by casting actors in roles they haven’t previously performed. Meanwhile, Mark Lowry feels that the show whizzes by in a blur. “The musical numbers seem shorter, important scenes are cut to the barest, and we have little time to be devastated by anyone’s death,” he writes on dfw.com. Judge for yourself through Dec. 24.

PLENTY OF GOOD SEATS AVAILABLE: The City Performance Hall is scheduled to open in the Arts District in September of 2012. The question, though, is just how much will it be used? So far, the hall has been booked for only about half of the dates that the Office of Cultural Affairs had hoped for by now. “I would have liked to have seen more by this point,” OCA director Maria Munoz-Blanco tells Unfair Park. “One of our challenges, I am guessing, is that without the building open and without people able to see it, some of our potential rentals are waiting to see how it turns out.”

NEW LOOKS: If you stop by the Dallas Museum of Art’s Center for Creative Connections, you might notice some new art in the space. That’s because three works – including Denton artist Annette Lawrence’s Accumulation Project – have been rotated into the space as part of the C3’s “Encountering Space” exhibition. Get a look at the three pieces on the DMA’s Uncrated blog or head to the museum today and get in free since it’s the first Tuesday of the month.