‘A Civil War Christmas,’ by Paula Vogel, Set at White House

The divisions plaguing a strife-torn country are not the only ones depicted in “A Civil War Christmas,” a beautifully stitched tapestry of American lives in transition in the fraught winter of 1864. Although the holidays are traditionally a time for festive coming together, most of the characters depicted in Paula Vogel’s song-trimmed drama, which opened on Tuesday night at New York Theater Workshop, are in search of loved ones lost in the fog of war or separated from family by the cruel finality of death.

Written with an embracing expansiveness by Ms. Vogel (a Pulitzer Prize winner for “How I Learned to Drive”), and featuring handsomely sung hymns and carols of the period, this unusual holiday pageant represents an illuminating alternative to the often garish or sentimental holiday fare foisted on theater audiences. Instead of a stocking full of sugar-shock-inducing candy, the show offers some real sustenance, even as it gently accentuates the spirit of hope and good will that even professional Scrooges try to embrace as the year winds down.

It’s a particularly chilly Christmas Eve in Washington, and the chill does not derive only from the quickly descending temperature. President Abraham Lincoln (Bob Stillman) has recently won re-election, and preparations are under way for his second inauguration. But the country is still riven by war, and troops on both sides are hunkered down for a frigid night with little hope of lasting peace ahead....