THERE’S A LESSON HERE:
EVEN WITHOUT THE BIG PARTY,
THE MESSAGE RINGS CLEAR
Charles Dickens’ beloved A Christmas Carol is among the holiday season’s most welcome recurring theater productions. Center REP’s sumptuous show has returned to the capacious Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek through December 22.
With A.C.T.’s traditional production on inexplicable hiatus, Center REP’s show is the largest and most ambitious production in the Bay Area. This year’s adaptation by Cynthia Caywood and Richard L. James takes a few shortcuts: no scruffy children get chased away by nasty old Ebenezer Scrooge; his housekeeper has been written out of the script; the rowdy party at the Fezziwig home is a brief, lackluster affair; and the Cratchit family has been downsized. Yet the classic tale retains its Broadway quality, thanks to a talented cast, an imposing set by Kelly James Tighe, and audacious staging by Scott Denison.
Michael Ray Wisely as E. Scrooge
Of course, productions of this enduring story feature traditional Christmas carols – among the many holiday irritants that provoke the wrath of miserable old Scrooge (Michael Ray Wisely) – but here, Denison and music director Michael Patrick Wiles include a vocal quartet whose sometimes mournful harmonies serve to underscore the drama, not to comment on it as in a Greek tragedy but to deepen the emotional impact of many scenes. The quartet appears in various locations on stage at key moments, sometimes as haunting ghosts thanks to Chris Currie‘s evocative lighting.
The Hofman’s huge stage and tall fly-space comfortably accommodate a towering set that serves as Scrooge’s office and home, as London streets, and as the netherworld from which emerge the ghost of his business partner Jacob Marley (K. Scott Coopwood) and the three sprits that arrive to torment and instruct Scrooge.
Michael Parrot, Jeff Draper, Scott Maraj, Kerri Shawn, Violet Morris
The ghosts of Christmases Past and Present are delightful and contribute enormous energy to this production. The vivacious Kerri Shawn, with gorgeous voice and shimmering white-and-silver gown, leads Scrooge through a return to his youth, while the comically gifted Terrance Austin Smith shows him the reality of his current life, including the dire poverty of Bob Cratchit’s family. Smith is a wonderfully infectious performer, and also appears as a baker selling bread in the street. Scott Maraj is silently malevolent as the giant specter of Christmas Future.
Music Director Wiles does a nice turn as Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s long-suffering clerk, with Melinda Meeng as his wife Mrs. Cratchit, and Anderson Moore as Tiny Tim. Adam Kuneviemann is excellent as Fred Hastings, Scrooge’s ebullient and well-meaning nephew.
The Company of Center REPs A Christmas Carol
In other productions, Scrooge’s viewing of the Fezziwigs’ annual party is a highlight of the first act. The party’s usual wild dancing has been downplayed in the current edition for unknown reasons. Viewing the party from outside, Scrooge begins to comprehend all that he’s lost in his single-minded pursuit of profits.
It takes much more than revisiting his youth to elicit an epiphany that converts him from despised capitalist oppressor to beatific benefactor. Visions of his own demise, the plundering of his possessions, overhearing dismissive sentiments from those who knew him, and ultimately, the probable loss of Tiny Tim, all combine to overwhelm Scrooge to change. His Christmas morning epiphany is felt throughout the theater.
A Christmas Carol is perhaps the greatest redemption story ever written. Quibbles aside, this is as good a production as you may ever hope to see. Center REP makes abundantly clear why it continues to tug at our hearts.
photos by Kevin Berne
A Christmas Carol
Center REP at Hofmann Theatre
Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr, in Walnut Creek
ends on December 22, 2024
for tickets, call 925.943.7469 Wed-Sun, 12-6pm, or visit Lesher Arts
Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: [email protected]
