Orange County Premiere!
Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol
by Tom Mula
Directed by Tony Vezner
- 11/14/08 ARTICLE: O.C. Weekly
- 11/14/08 ARTICLE: Los Cerritos Community News
- 11/25/08 REVIEW: Orange County Register
- 11/26/08 REVIEW: StageSceneLA
WOW! - 12/01/08 REVIEW: Fullerton Observer
THEATER ARTICLE
Save Scrooge
Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol
by Erin DeWitt, OC Weekly
November 14, 2008
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We all know the classic holiday tale: Scrooge is an a---ole, gets visited on Christmas Eve by three ghosts who show him the error of his ways, and is reformed by morning, thereby saving Christmas for his employee Bob Cratchit and family (including the adorable and tragic Tiny Tim). It was only a matter of time before someone came up with a spin-off.
Written by Tom Mula, this play details the othe-worldly journey of Scrooge's late business partner (and introductory Christmas apparition) Jacob Marley as he tries to save his crotchety old friend's soul. Winning awards and standing ovations around the country, Jacob Marley's Christmas Carolmay not be Dickens, but it just might become a new family Christmas tradition.
Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol at The Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills, (714) 777-3033; www.chancetheater.com. Preview performance Fri., then regular performance every Fri. after, 8 p.m.; also every Sat., 3 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. Through Dec. 21. $27 - $35.
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THEATER ARTICLE
Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol to Take the Stage at Anaheim's Chance Theater
by Brian Hews, Los Cerritos Community News
November 14, 2008
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Anaheim Hills, CA (November 7, 2008) - Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen and Managing Director Casey Long are pleased to announce the upcoming Orange County Premiere production of Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol (Press Opening: November 15) by multi-Joseph Jefferson award-winning playwright Tom Mula. The production will be helmed by veteran director Tony Vezner, Assistant Professor of Theatre at Irvine's Concordia University.
The play is a retelling of the classic Christmas story with a twist - this time we hear the tale from Scrooge's partner. Marley was dead to begin with... but when Scrooge's partner entered the afterlife, his story was only beginning a new chapter. We bring you the "real" story of A Christmas Carol - the story of Jacob Marley's heroic behind-the-scenes efforts to save old Scrooge's soul - and in the process, save his own. Irreverent, funny, and deeply moving for the whole family, you'll never watch the Dickens' tale the same way again.
Says playwright Mula of the play's origin, "The first year I played Scrooge in Chicago's Goodman Theatre's annual production of A Christmas Carol, my close friend and brilliant director Terry McCabe brought his children to see a matinee. At lunch afterwards, his ten-year-old daughter Hazel Flowers McCabe commented that she thought 'Jacob Marley got a raw deal,' (arranging Scrooge's ghostly visits, but remaining in chains himself). We all agreed she had a point."
Originally written for playwright Mula to perform as a solo piece, Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol has also been published in a four-actor version. The Chance production will be performed by seven actors including seven year-old Rylee Montgomery as Tiny Tim and other characters.
"This play sees A Christmas Carol from a whole new perspective," said directed Vezner. "It's like the Wicked of the Christmas Carol story - telling us how we got where we are in that famous story. It really gets to the root of what theatre is all about - good storytelling. It relies on the actors to make the story come alive - all of the fun, pain, and the special effects too!"
Vezner continues, "It's one of the most touching stories of redemption I've read in a long time. It's got a little of all the best Christmas stories in it - a misfit angel like It's a Wonderful Life, a chance at a new start like A Christmas Carol or How the Grinch Stole Christmas and all of the wonder of the supernatural. And great characters. And actors who fly! It really has a little bit of everything."
The cast for Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol will include (in alphabetical order) Bryan Barton (Marley), Marisa Persson (Bogle), Glenn Koppel (Scrooge), Jeff Hellebrand (The Record Keeper, Cratchit), Bryan Seastrom (Nephew Fred, Ensemble), Alex Bueno (Damned Woman, Ensemble) and Rylee Montgomery (Tiny Tim, Ensemble).
Creative staff and designers include Christopher Scott Murillo (Set Designer), Jeff Brewer (Lighting Designer), Sarah LeFeber (Costume Designer), Dave Mickey (Sound Designer), Jeremy Haven (Asst. Sound Designer), David J. Dalton (Projection Designer), Glenda Morgan Brown (Dialect Coach), Jonathan Josephson (Dramaturg), Jeanne Valleroy (Stage Manager), and Marisa Persson (Assistant Director).
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THEATER REVEW
Play presents Scrooge as viewed by 'Jacob Marley'
Review: Chance Theater delivers the Orange County premiere of a new take on 'A Christmas Carol.'
by Eric Marchese, Orange County Register
November 25, 2008
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If anyone ever got a raw deal in "A Christmas Carol," it's Scrooge's long-deceased partner, Jacob Marley.
Charles Dickens' famed novel opens with the statement that "Marley was dead," moving from there to the now-familiar tale of a miser redeemed by visits from several spirits, including that of Marley.
"Carol" has been adapted every which way for stage and screen, but Tom Mula was the first to tell Scrooge's story from Marley's perspective - first as a one-man play, in 1994, then a novel a year later.
The ensemble stage version, which came later still, has never been produced in Orange County, a vacuum now being filled by the Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills.
South Coast Repertory's annual adaptation and the countless other stage versions have made us almost immune to being surprised or moved by what was always intended as a sentimental cautionary tale advising us to appreciate others and cherish life. Whether the unique angle taken by Mula can do the trick depends on a number of variables, not the least of which is the audience's mood and receptivity.
Tony Vezner's staging at the Chance can count many blessings, from Bryan Barton's often affecting turn as the title character to the production's Dickensian look (Christopher Scott Murillo's scenic design and Sarah LeFeber's costumes) and technical effects (by David J. Dalton, Jeff Brewer, Dave Mickey and Jeremy Haven).
As Marley - or, rather, Marley's ghost - Bryan Barton gives us a protagonist to root for, imbuing him with the personality of a hopeful pessimist, hoping he can keep Scrooge from suffering his fate while avoiding eternal damnation for himself. Barton hints that Marley might have been a kinder soul than Scrooge - the type of question this play raises without satisfactorily answering.
The trouble with Marley's character, and thus, of the play itself, lies not in Barton's performance but in Mula's writing. Having chosen a focal character very much like Scrooge, Mula must give us enough of a back-story that we personally invest in his fate. Making Marley too much like Scrooge almost defeats the play's purpose, while showing him to be radically different from his partner strains credibility.
As it transpires, Mula chooses a safe, middle-of-the-road course. At one tantalizing moment, Marley, despite his protestations, is about to be shown his painfully lonely boyhood - yet before much can happen, he's whisked back to his Scrooge rescue mission. It's a major misstep from which "Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol" never recovers.
Mula's script quotes Dickens where it needs to and branches off on its own when it has to in clever, often inventive ways. Yet, although Mula's descriptive language is, like Dickens, frequently poetic, it fails to echo the great author's ability to conjure deeply felt emotions within the reader.
We're told that Marley "hears things with new ears," but unlike "A Christmas Carol," there is never that climactic moment where Marley realizes he has wasted his life chasing after the buck. Mula, unlike Dickens, has crafted a story whose structure is inelegant. In the end, we never really know Marley much better than we did before the play began.
With a personality as buoyant as the Ghost of Christmas Present, the Bogle works as a kind of Jiminy Cricket, ushering Marley into the spirit realm, explaining what's expected of him and accompanying him on his travels. For the role, Marisa Persson adopts a most Dickensian persona, her Bogle a cheery, optimistic and tenacious little Cockney who aims to please.
Vezner's remaining actors function as the piece's ensemble, with each also portraying various characters (Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, Scrooge's Nephew, etc.). While all five ensemble players are solid, Glenn Koppel deserves kudos for his reading of Scrooge: The bald-pated actor paints the famed miser as testy and precise, disdainful of his old partner, disinclined to believe everything he sees and hears.
Brewer's lighting effects do the trick, as during a storm, the book-laden shelves glow orange with each bolt of lightning. Mickey creates apt sound effects but misses the chance to do more - Marley's outburst when he appears in Scrooge's bedchamber, for example, needs the ominous clanking of chains as described by Dickens. The ghostly reverb effect is likewise underused.
In the end, the play supplies some enjoyable twists on the well-known, widely cherished Dickens perennial. It may not prove as inventive as its source, but few playwrights today could use any great writer as a starting point, then show themselves to be even better.
Freelance writer Eric Marchese has covered entertainment for the Register since 1984.
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THEATER REVEW
Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol
by Steven Stanley, StageSceneLA
WOW!
November 26, 2008
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Southern Californians may not be able to depend on snow before Christmas, but one thing is certain about our theater scene. There will be Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carols galore every year from November through December.
Some theaters opt for a traditional approach, others set the tale to music, others play it for comedy while still others target a niche audience (e.g. a pair of gay Christmas Carols currently on the boards).
Down Orange County way, The Chance Theater's take on Dickens' classic tale may be the most original of all (and the spookiest). In Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, by Tom Mula, Ebenezer Scrooge's late but not particularly lamented partner in stinginess finally gets the chance to redeem himself much as Scrooge has been doing for the past 165 years.
The tale opens as does Dickens' original A Christmas Carol, with Dickens' own words-"Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that."-and soon we find ourselves with old Jacob himself (Bryan Barton). But where are we? What is this dark, dank room filled with shelves and shelves of books? Are we in hell?
The answer comes quickly enough from the Record Keeper (Jeff Hellebrand) and a pair of storytellers (Alex Bueno and Bryan Seastrom). This is the "counting house," and Marley has come up short in his accounts. His credit is "almost nonexistent." Since he has not fulfilled his end of the contract, he is presented with the chains he "forged in life."
Out of Marley's ear pops Bogle (pronounced BO-gull, and portrayed by Marisa Persson), a cute, spunky, barefoot Cockney-accented sprite, who will be his guide. As Marley and Bogle fly over London, Jacob is astounded to see his fellow townspeople surrounded by angels, and then by grim reapers.which they are unaware of until it's too late. When Bogle tells Marley of his assignment-to give Ebenezer Scrooge a chance to take a new path in life before it is too late-Marley is aghast. "I have to redeem old Scrooge?" he exclaims in disbelief. After all, Scrooge is the only man worse than Marley. How can Marley possibly effect in Scrooge a complete change of heart? In twenty-four years, he might be able to do something, but in twenty-four hours? Impossible!
Soon we're in more traditional A Christmas Carol territory with Scrooge (Glenn Koppel) being his usual mean self to his overly cheerful nephew Fred (Seastrom) and browbeaten clerk Bob Cratchit (Hellebrand), to whom he gives Christmas Day off but only on condition that he take work home with him.
It's Bogle who plants the idea of "spirits" in Marley's head, inspiring him to come up with the plan to have three ghosts visit Scrooge on three successive nights.
Though we spend time with Scrooge, Mula's tale plants the focus clearly on Marley. We relive his painful childhood, his mother's untimely death, the bullying he underwent by an older apprentice until he met the new boy Scrooge, later to become his business partner. In Mula's version, it is Marley himself who is transformed into each of the three ghosts.
Though the mood of Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol is mostly quite dark and otherworldly, there are occasional comic moments as when Marley dons a sheet with eyeholes thinking this might be the best way to scare Scrooge. Later, Marley holds an empty frame up to his face and places a door knocker in his mouth to simulate his first ghostly meeting with Scrooge. When Scrooge tells Marley to "go straight to hell, or back to it," Bogle deadpans, "Well, that went well, didn't it," when it clearly didn't go well at all.
Under Tony Vezner's imaginative direction, Barton gives an impressive performance as Marley, intense, committed, and ultimately touching. Koppel's Scrooge is one tough cookie, and perhaps an even meaner man than we are accustomed to. Persson is perkiness/spunkiness personified. Hellebrand, Bueno, Seastrom, and little Miss Rylee Montgomery (Tiny Tim) provide fine support to the three principals.
The entire production could not be more visually imaginative. Set designer Christopher Scott Murillo's weirdly angled bookshelves look like something out of The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. Ladders are moved about the set, up which cast members climb in order to appear to be swimming like sea creatures (David J. Dalton's projection design making them seem surrounded by sea water) or flying over London like Superman. Jeff Brewer's moody lighting adds to the show's spookiness and Sarah Le Feber's excellent costumes evoke a London of another time. Dave Mickey's sound design features whirling winds and eerie background music, and has Bueno and Seastrom doing Foley duty as they bang and rattle chains at appropriate moments. Whenever ghosts speak to Scrooge, their voices take on a spooky reverb.
Other A Christmas Carols have accustomed us to seeing Scrooge's transformation, so it is a surprising (and refreshing) change to see the spotlight shining on someone else's redemption. We are told that "Scrooge was changed by what he saw, but Marley was changed by what he was." Audiences cannot help but be moved by Jacob Marley's journey.
Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills. Through December 21. Fridays at 8:00, Saturdays at 3:00 and 8:00, Sundays at 2:00. Reservations: 714 777-3033 www.chancetheater.com
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THEATER REVEW
Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol
by Joyce Rosenthal, Fullerton Observer
December 1, 2008
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"Ebenezer Scrooge" and "Christmas Carol" are synonymous. Well, move over Scrooge, it's time for us to get to know Jacob Marley. The best way to do so is attending Chance Theater's delightful production of Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol by Tom Mula. It's based on the old story and you will hear some familiar dialogue, but it's told from Marley's view.
Marley is dead and has landed in a heavenly counting place where his account is examined and found woefully short. He is condemned to a hellish eternity accompanied by a Bogle, a malicious little hell-sprite who torments him. When offered a chance to free himself by changing Scrooge's cold heart; he grabs it. Ultimately, in achieving this, he also redeems himself.
Although the story is "Christmas Carol," Marley's version is wondrous to behold. It is funny, irreverent, and moving.
There are very few props, but the performers do an impeccable job letting us know exactly what is happening by their actions In addition to their main role, most members of the cast play roles as the Ensemble. Bryan Barton, who has a very expressive face, is an excellent Marley. Marissa Persson (Bogle), Glenn Kopel (Scrooge) Jeff Hellebrand (the Record Keeper, Cratchit), Alex Bueno (Damned Woman), Bryan Seastrom (Nephew Fred) and Rylee Montgomery (Young Marley, Tiny Tim) all contribute to the enjoyment of the play.
The set designed by Christopher Scott Murillo is absolutely outstanding. Also enhancing the performance play is the costume design (Sarah Le Feber), lighting design, (Jeff Brewer) and sound design (Dave Mickey).
Thanks to Director Tony Vezner who brought all the various pieces together in admirable fashion and offers a play that is not to be missed. - thru Dec 21.
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