Along with making a career in film and TV, Tom Atkins has long been a fixture on Pittsburgh stages, particularly that of Pittsburgh Public Theater, where to his more classic roles he's added his franchise portrayal of Art Rooney in "The Chief." Taking on Scrooge for the first time, he may have found himself another franchise.

"A Musical Christmas Carol" has certainly been that for Pittsburgh CLO, which is staging it at the Byham for the 17th consecutive year. Atkins steps into the cape, scowl and redemptive joy inhabited for 15 of those years by Edmund Lyndeck, with two turns by Bingo O'Malley.

Hearing that Lyndeck would not be back this year because of movie work, Atkins sought out the role. Asked halfway through the CLO's short rehearsal period to explain why he wanted it, he pretended not to remember:

"Now that I've had a number of rehearsals, I'm wondering! This is hard. Not for the whole bunch of people who've done it a number of times, they just have a picnic. But I'm working my [posterior] off. We're doing this with just nine days rehearsal, isn't that crazy? In 41 years as an actor, I've never had so little rehearsal -- even at Williamstown we had two weeks."

Further, he's discovered they have some three-performance days, another first, starting at the ungodly hour of 10 a.m. "Maybe they'll even make us do four shows on a snow day!" But his consternation is largely sham. "I'm tickled to be doing it, it's a joy -- lots of work but lots of fun."

Atkins says he's wanted to play Scrooge for the CLO since he first saw Marley's Ghost rise up through the floor, back when his now college-age son was just 4 or 5. "I thought, 'Oh, wow, that's great, I want to be part of that!' " He suspects the seed was planted long before, when he first saw the 1951 Alastair Sim movie.

"I think it's a wonderful play and beautifully written," he says of the much-adapted adaptation by David H. Bell. "The language is very spare, more concise than Shakespeare." As a newcomer, he keeps discovering small things to savor. After concentrating exclusively on his own lines at home, he's constantly surprised by what others say in rehearsal.

"I get very moved watching young Scrooge and Belle's scenes and my sister, Fan, who comes to the school to take me home. She dies young -- it's very touching. Scrooge is sort of like a member of the audience watching those [flashback] scenes, and I'm a sucker for that old stuff. ... It's almost like we're in a sanctuary working on this play -- you feel wrong using harsh swear words in a moment of frustration."

He frankly admires his fellow actors, mentioning (among many) Jeff Howell and Tim Hartman, returning as Bob Cratchit and Mr. Fezziwig/Christmas Present. Warned that they can be pranksters backstage, Howell especially, Atkins says, "So far they're being nice to the new guy. They're letting me sink in my own sandpit."

As to young Joseph Serafini, playing Tiny Tim for the fourth year, he warns, "I may pick him up and put him on my shoulder, and then again, depending on how I feel, I may not. I've told him, if I put my hands on his shoulders, I'll kneel, but if he feels my hands under his arms, he's going up."