Electric violinist Valerie Vigoda starts off every performance of “Striking 12” with the same disclaimer to audiences: “Welcome to ‘Striking 12,’ a non-holiday, non-extravaganza,” she says.

The musical has toured during the holiday season since 2002, but it is not your typical, cheery Christmas story.

“The whole idea of the show was to kind of fly in the face of the traditional,” said drummer Gene Lewin. “There’s enough holiday stuff out there that people don’t need yet another thing. If anything, people who hate the holidays are probably going to identify with this show more than people who love the holidays.”

Lewin is the drummer for GrooveLily, the pop-rock trio that performs “Striking 12.” Lewin, Vigoda and pianist Brendan Milburn will put on two performances of the show at The Music Hall in Portsmouth on Saturday, Dec. 8, as part of The Music Hall’s Vintage Christmas program. According to Lewin, this year’s performance will be more focused than past shows on the concert element.

“It’s kind of a much more stripped down concert-type version of the show, as opposed to a run in the theater where there’s a little bit of a set and a really specific lighting design and that kind of stuff,” Lewin said. “We find that, in some ways, people actually like it better this way. Certainly, it’s not losing anything.”

Written by Vigoda, Milburn and playwright Rachel Sheinkin, “Striking 12” is based on the Hans Christian Andersen story “The Little Match Girl,” “which is probably the most depressing story ever written in Danish,” Lewin said. “We thought, ‘Hey, there’s a cheery idea for a holiday show.’”

First published in the mid-19th century, Andersen’s grim tale tells the story of a poor girl who freezes to death while selling matches on New Year’s Eve. GrooveLily puts a modern (and much less tragic) twist on the original, creating a story meant to cure holiday blues. Milburn plays a lonely New Yorker who decides to stay home on New Year’s Eve. But, after a surprise visit from a light bulb salesperson played by Vigoda—a modern day mirror of Andersen’s match girl—he finds some unexpected holiday cheer.

The band members face the challenge of shifting between several different roles, all while maintaining the groove of a live concert. At times, they simply play themselves. At others, they play characters in their modern story. At still others, they revert to characters from Andersen’s “Match Girl,” acting out the original tale.

Through it all, however, the musicians’ top priority is to put on a rocking musical performance. Instead of calling it musical theater, Lewin refers to “Striking 12” as a “concert with a story.” Each musician gets to play extended solos at some point during the show, enabling all three to improvise and keep every performance fresh. 

GrooveLily’s sound is influenced by a variety of musical backgrounds. Vigoda, a classically trained violinist who has toured with Cyndi Lauper, Joe Jackson and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, started the band in 1994. Milburn, who grew up playing rock piano and studied musical theater, joined shortly thereafter. Lewin, a former jazz drummer, entered the picture in 1997.

“The shortest phrase we’ve come up with lately is, ‘We’re a rock band that does musical theater.’ But it’s always hard to really describe our sound, because it’s very eclectic,” Lewin said. “It’s not your typical power trio.”

After GrooveLily had toured around various circuits for about five years, Milburn had the idea of writing a holiday musical to keep the band busy through the winter months. The group contacted Sheinkin, who has since won a Tony Award for writing “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Sheinkin was inspired to base “Striking 12” on “The Little Match Girl” after hearing the title track of GrooveLily’s 2000 album, “Little Light.” The theme worked out well. By setting the story around New Year’s Eve instead of Christmas, the group established secular context.

These days, GrooveLily has dramatically reduced its regular touring schedule to focus on musical theater. Vigoda and Milburn are now married with a two-year-old child, and Lewin has a 10-month-old of his own. The trio recently completed a second musical, “Sleeping Beauty Wakes,” which has already won an Ovation Award for world premiere musical, and they are at work on an autobiographical show called “Wheel House.”

“Eventually, we’ll have three or more ‘concerts with a story’ that we can tour with,” Lewin said.

For now, the band remains focused on making every performance of “Striking 12” a riveting and uplifting experience for audiences. Lewin believes the show will appeal to guests of all ages, regardless of how they feel about the holidays—or how they feel about musical theater.

“The whole idea of this thing is it’s a concert with a story. It’s never been a full-blown musical, because, basically, it’s a band onstage at our instruments,” Lewin said. “A lot of the story is told in song. That’s where it overlaps with traditional musicals.”

GrooveLily kicked off this season’s “Striking 12” tour in Tacoma, Wash., and will bring it to a close with four nights of shows in New York City, ending, appropriately, on New Year’s Eve. For more information, visit www.groovelily.com.

“Striking 12” will play at The Music Hall on Saturday, Dec. 8 at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are $26-$32. For tickets, visit www.themusichall.org or call 603-436-2400, or visit the box office at 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth.