“The Forgotten Carols” — Michael McLean’s musical tale of Connie Lou, a nurse hardened by life’s struggles, and the intervention on her behalf of the mysterious “Uncle John” through the retelling of Jesus Christ’s birth from heretofore unconsidered perspectives — is currently touring, with multiple stops left in the Beehive State.

The show will be at Ogden’s Dee Events Center on Tuesday, followed by multiple performances in the Salt Lake area at Cottonwood High School from Dec. 18-21 and a pair of shows Dec. 23 at Mountain View High School in Orem.

Returning with “The Forgotten Carols” is the show’s creator, McLean, who previously was forced to step away from the stage due to health issues.

“Isn’t it brilliant of me, though I didn’t know it at the time, that in 1991 I wrote a story about a guy 2,000 years old so no one would ever say I’m too old to play it?” McLean told the Standard-Examiner, jokingly. “But when I got really sick with my kidney failure and haven’t been able to do this John the Beloved part … I have missed it.”

For many, the last time they saw McLean as John may have been in the 2020 filmed version of the show, which spent two weeks as a top-10 movie nationwide — on just 59 screens — during the pandemic, when theaters and studios alike were on the proverbial ropes.

“We tried to pick a place (to perform) in Salt Lake, but they wouldn’t let us do it because it was a red instead of green with how severe COVID was. So we thought, well, maybe that can’t happen,” McLean said. “Then, at the last second — and it was it was like a movie, kind of like a script — we found that we could go down to Cedar City and, at the Heritage Theater, we could do a couple of runs of the show.”

While McLean is back on the stage again, wearing the familiar costumes and singing the songs longtime fans know and love, he does so now with a new outlook on life.

“You see everything differently when you’re that close to maybe not being able to carry on and you get really, really grateful in profound ways,” McLean said.

“The Forgotten Carols” has evolved over the years, both in terms of presentation and content. And McLean, who say’s he’s probably done tweaking the show after 33 years, has evolved, too.

Like Connie Lou, he has had his struggles. McLean has questioned his faith, faced death and even battled impostor syndrome and depression. But he also has persevered and been humbled by the opportunity he has to present this story to people who are contending with struggles of their own.

“Doing this has helped me get through my faith crisis. It’s helped me discover things that I want to be. And, now, it’s a celebration — every night that I get on stage — of the closeness of the one whose birth we celebrate,” McLean said.

He sees a little bit of himself in all of his characters, with their various trials and imperfections, and he believes that the people who continue to come to his shows feel the same.

“What they often say to me is all of those forgotten characters in the Christmas story — like the innkeeper, or like the shepherd that fell asleep, or like the woman who the first time she held a child was never able to have her own children, all this stuff — they’re all us,” McLean said.

To that end, it’s his hope that people who experience “The Forgotten Carols” now can find some solace in the shared experience of feeling the Christmas spirit.

“When people say, ‘Oh, how do you think the tour is going? How do you think your performances are?’ Well, that is not what’s important. It’s not how I feel,” McLean said. “What’s important is do we get to all feel this thing that’s independent of your performance, and it’s the presence of Jesus.

“I think we’re all needing reassurance … that feeling, that hope, that love, that faith, that acceptance.”

For more information or to purchase tickets, go to https://forgottencarols.com/.