Theater Review: A WHYNOT CHRISTMAS CAROL (World Premiere at A.C.T. in San Francisco)

A.C.T. ASKS US TO PONDER “WHY NOT” – BUT AFTER
THIS UPDATED CAROL YOU’LL BE SCREAMING “WHY?!”

Last holiday season, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) announced that, after over 40 years, they were ending their annual run of their popular holiday classic showing of A Christmas Carol. The original sets were to be struck and all the costumes were to be sold. They promised audiences something new, bigger and better for the 2024 Season. After months of waiting, a new version of Charles Dickens’ beloved tale debuted with the wonky title, A Whynot Christmas Carol. After last Sunday’s opening, I left scratching my head and asking, “WHY”?

Jomar Tagatac (center) and cast members

As many know, Dickens’ 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, A Ghost Story of Christmas tells of the miserly London shop-owner Ebenezer Scrooge who one fateful Christmas Eve is visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner Jacob Marley  warning him that he will be visited by three Ghosts – Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come – all of whom, as the night goes on, offer him a sobering look at his life and future. Sprinkle in the Cratchits, a transformed heart, and Tiny Tim’s famous Christmas blessing, and we have our happily-merry-after.

Dan Hiatt, Piera Tamer, Catherine Castellanos, Jomar Tagatac, and Rosie Hallett

The reason we keep coming back to this story is not because we want to know what happens, but because we want to be moved. And we can only be moved if we’re fully-immersed in a fleshed-out world presented to us as if we’re experiencing it for the first time. Playwright Craig Lucas‘s new spin is so befuddling that, at intermission, I heard parents explaining the whole backstory to youngsters unfamiliar with the story. Other patrons spent intermission bolting for the exit, no doubt infuriated that inside this theatrical stocking there was nothing but a lump of coal.

Dan Hiatt

In Lucas‘s modern day meta-version, the story opens as a play within a play. The town of Whynot’s theater company, “The Whynot Players”, are rehearsing for their annual production of A Christmas Carol. The director Aubrei (Stacy Ross), an old theater vet, and the actors spend a lot of time questioning the real meaning of Scrooge’s motivations and actions. Why does he act so mean and miserly? Is he lonely or selfish? Is it the goal of the show to educate? Playing Scrooge, Phil (Dan Hiatt) is on an existential quest to figure out how to play this character (Note: He doesn’t). All the other actors are given the freedom to question the message that they want to send in this traditional holiday story – as if that message isn’t already abundantly clear.

Rosie Hallett, Devin A. Cunningham, and Colette “Coco” Brown

Metaphors for the state of the world in 2024 are bandied about as possible ways to interpret the show. Of course, as theaters are trying to figure out how to get younger butts in the seats post-COVID, politically correct or the dreaded “woke” ideas are tossed about as Scrooge and the characters could symbolize many things: The Ghost of Christmas Past is renamed “The Revenant of Yuletide Gone”; Scrooge’s nephew Fred is now a female named Fredericka, etc. It’s tough to be on board already, as Lucas and director Pam MacKinnon want us to believe there’s a town called Whynot, and “Why Not” is the catch phrase that is bandied about amongst the cast. It is unclear. Are we in an alternate universe? But adding preachiness to the mix is just more stuffing in this turkey.

Catherine Castellanos and the Cast

The audience is forced to wait all this out to see if we’re going to experience the traditional and favorite scenes from the beloved show. Instead, we get snippets. One of my favorite scenes in the original story is when The Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge to his former boss’s Christmas party. Mr Fezziwig and his wife’s party is a pivotal scene. The elaborate detail with all the festive costumes, the music and dancing brings the show scenes of pure joy. Here it’s given a passing reference. To say it is confusing and hard to follow is an understatement. The playwright is assuming that the audience already knows the whole story including all the characters and more specifically the direction the story is headed. Jacob Marley and Bob Cratchit and his family are present, but more as props. The real “action” on stage is the actors figuring out their interpretations of the characters — even as they act out their new version.

Dan Hiatt, Jenny Nguyen Nelson, and cast

Lark (Gianna Digregario) is part of the backstage crew and is the line reader for the actors. Her young daughter Zayd (Piera Tamer) is asked to step in to play Tiny Tim. Zayd is wise beyond her years with her common sense and no-nonsense approach to playing the characters. If only it were that way for the other “actors”, who had no character arc or reason for being.

Dan Hiatt

Act II is easier to follow as the show is being previewed and we see the familiar dark and haunting sets when Scrooge is visited by a creepy puppet version of the Ghost of Christmas Future with smoke emanating from its chest. Ominous music by The Kilbanes and the puppet design by Amanda Villalobos create the dread and fear that Scrooge experiences as he realizes his future will be bleak. There’s no shortage of stagecraft here; it’s as if this were a salute to theatre more than a tale of redemption. The show ends in the usual joyous fashion with A.C.T.’s Young Conservatory students performing an a cappella number, but it’s rushed and devoid of emotional impact as all the events leading up to the transformational Christmas morning have been turned into a gooey mess.

Stacy Ross, Dan Hiatt, and Catherine Castellanos

A.C.T. is certainly not the first to update this holiday chestnut. Recently, The Old Globe opened Your Local Theater Presents: A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, Again, which has a group of actors in the green room of a local theater rehearsing A Christmas Carol from 1997 to 2023; the tale is told, but the show is about actors dedicated to seeking success on the stage. Jefferson Mays stared into your soul in his brilliantly staged one-man version — not a play so much as a dramatic reading, just as Mr. Dickens did himself on tour. Whether the story takes place in 19th-century London or in 21st-century San Diego, or Scrooge is played by Mr. Magoo or soap opera diva Susan Lucci as “Evie Scrooge”, the classic tale of Ebenezer Scrooge’s absolution is timeless – a soul being redeemed by love and caring for others is universal.

The Cast

A Christmas Carol keeps the lights on at theaters across the country, filling their coffers every year and helping underwrite their other productions. Missing the mark and trying too hard to be clever and woke, this expensively “fresh take” is so stale that if A.C.T. keeps bringing it back, the Toni Rembe Theatre will have to be razed for a parking lot. “Bah! Humbug!” to this production.

Jenny Nguyen Nelson and Dan Hiatt

photos by Kevin Berne/American Conservatory Theater

Piera Tamer and Patrick Kelly Jones

A Whynot Christmas Carol
American Conservatory Theatre
A.C.T.’s Toni Rembe Theater, 415 Geary St.
ends on December 24, 2024
for tickets ($25–$130), call 415.749.2228 or visit A.C.T.
ticket prices subject to change without notice