Olympia Family Theater offers a holiday trip into the Wild Wood with Toad and friends

It might not be thought of as a winter story, but there’s plenty of holiday spirit in “The Wind in the Willows,” opening Friday at Olympia Family Theater.

“At its heart, it’s a story about community and the connections we make with each other, which is pretty Christmassy,” said Andy Gordon of Olympia, who adapted Kenneth Grahame’s beloved children’s book into a musical, with music by Bruce Whitney and lyrics by Daven Tillinghast, Gordon and Whitney.

The work of Charles Dickens influenced the adaption, Gordon told The Olympian, and since Dickens helped to define the proper celebration of Christmas in “A Christmas Carol,” that connection adds to the seasonal flavor.

The show includes a Christmas carol based on words from Grahame’s tale of the adventures of a group of very human-like animals living in a pastoral version of Edwardian England. “It’s a nativity-focused carol, but it’s told from the animals’ perspectives,” said Gordon, who’s directing the musical, which runs through Dec. 22.

Fans of the book, written in 1908 and often adapted for television, film and stage, will recall that the main dramatic episode involves the reckless Toad of Toad Hall (Jordan Richards), who gets into lots of trouble and needs help getting out.

Luckily, he has a group of loyal friends: Rat (Mandy Ryle), Mole (Hannah Eklund) and Badger (John Serembe, who charmed Olympia Family Theater audiences last December with his portrayal of a comic Ebenezer Scrooge).

The show is all about friendship, Gordon said. A key line in the show is: “Friendship is not a thing you say; it’s a thing you do.”

This is Olympia Family Theater’s second production of “Willows.” The world premiere production in 2012 earned high praise from local theater critic Alec Clayton. “There are many wonderfully wild scenes in this play, including every appearance of Toad,” Clayton wrote on his blog.

The premiere didn’t include the carol, sung by carolers in a scene that’s “very much in keeping with the generosity of spirit associated with the holidays,” Gordon said. “I had Dickens — ‘Christmas Carol’ in particular — in mind when I wrote the dialogue in the carolers’ scene.”

The reworked “Willows” also includes three other new songs, a new set inspired by Arthur Rackham’s illustrations — and a new exploration of the lives of the weasels, stoats and foxes who live in the Wild Wood and who are described in the novel as not to be trusted.

“Grahame had a bit of a blind spot about class,” Gordon said. “All of his characters are fairly well to do. … He doesn’t give a lot of thought to those who are less fortunate. There’s an implicit class issue going on between our heroes and the inhabitants of the Wild Wood.

“We’ve given dialogue that speaks to the characters’ responsibilities to the community,” he added, “and we’ve embodied the Wild Wood cast with two characters who are in unfortunate circumstances.”

‘The Wind in the Willows’

• What: Olympia Family Theater celebrates the holidays with a locally written musical version of Kenneth Grahame’s classic tale of the wild Toad of Toad Hall and his very good friends Rat, Badger and Mole.
• When: 7 p.m. this Friday plus Dec. 5, 6, 13 and 20 and 2 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday plus Dec. 7, 8, 14, 15, 21 and 22
• Where: Olympia Family Theater, 612 Fourth Ave E., Olympia
• Tickets: $15-$20; for the Dec. 5 performance, pay what you can.
• More information: olyft.org, 360-570-1638