{"id":91079,"date":"2025-12-12T02:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/91079\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T02:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:32:10","slug":"this-year-long-beach-playhouses-a-christmas-carol-is-a-masterclass-in-theatrical-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/91079\/","title":{"rendered":"This year, Long Beach Playhouse\u2019s \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d is a masterclass in theatrical arts –"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/a>Photo by Mike Hardy <\/p>\n

From having seen more than half of Long Beach Playhouse\u2019s 13 prior stagings of A Christmas Carol, I would have been comfortable in advance of this year\u2019s iteration predicting that you would see a faithful rendering of the Charles Dickens classic, with an entertaining Scrooge and a solid supporting cast.<\/p>\n

What I couldn\u2019t have promised \u2014 especially if I knew this year\u2019s would be an unadorned, completely traditionalist take \u2014 is that it would be something fresh, let alone a nearly flawless demonstration of the theatrical arts.<\/p>\n

Rather than open with Dickens, director Carole Louise Nicholson begins the proceedings with an a cappella \u201cGod Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen\u201d, the first of a handful of effective mood-setters we get throughout the play from a spectral troika tasked with delivering Dickens\u2019s narrative voice and serving as a sort of Greek chorus \/ witness \/ facilitator. Christine Carver, Ren Warzecha, and Andrew Yonce are a perfect vocally\/visually\/kinetic unit, aiding not only the forward momentum but also the overall emotional tone.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m loath to single out any actor for individual praise for the simple reason that literally every member of this ensemble is not only perfectly cast but set up for success by the thoughtful and nuanced attention Nicholson has given to every moment and interaction. You\u2019ll never catch an actor simply standing by while another delivers her lines; each character is fully inhabited and living every moment.<\/p>\n

But of course something must be said of Scrooge. Although Gregory Cohen\u2019s take is stylized (I don\u2019t know how you don\u2019t stylize a guy who goes around saying, \u201cBah! Humbug!\u201d), at no time do we not experience Scrooge as real flesh and blood, a unique, idiosyncratic human. That alone would be sufficient for a good \u2014 in Cohen\u2019s case, very good \u2014 performance. But Cohen goes further, peeling back the stylization after Scrooge\u2019s post-ghost transformation, then stripping it entirely when he visits his nephew Fred on Christmas Day, abashed and remorseful and hoping against hope that it\u2019s not too late to salvage their relationship in the time that\u2019s left to them. A profoundly beautiful, touching moment.<\/p>\n

Sidenote: Of all the major characters, Andy Justus\u2019s Fred is the most fully stylized, all flourish and elocution, which Justus delivers with charming aplomb. Counterintuitively, unlike Cohen, Justus does not fully drop the stylization in their pivotal moment together but merely mutes it, which somehow only highlights the humanity of their exchange. It\u2019s yet one more example of Nicholson\u2019s studious exploitation of the resources at her disposal.<\/p>\n

The production\u2019s crowning achievement is its flow. It\u2019s one thing to maintain the overall momentum and find ways of effecting scene changes without straining our suspension of disbelief. It\u2019s quite another, however, to craft a piece of theatre whose every second is subsumed into a continuous flow \u2014 especially when we\u2019re talking about a work that is primarily textual and not sensorial. This is by no means necessary for a great production, but it\u2019s really something to see on those extremely rare occasions when you find it. This has nothing to do with barreling ahead full-tilt, nor with eschewing changes of pace; instead, it\u2019s letting each moment play out organically, and for those moments to succeed each other in such a way that the scene happening in front of you now seems to have naturally sprouted from the one it replaced.<\/p>\n

I am informed that this is Nicholson\u2019s first time in the director\u2019s chair. I can scarcely believe it, because this is quite simply one of the best-directed works of theatre I\u2019ve seen. Sure, a production this bare-bones, and with such tried-and-true source material, in some ways will not be amongst the most complicated of shows to helm. But all that matters is the end product, how well a given script is realized on stage. For this A Christmas Carol, it would be impossible for me to fully recount all the little choices that are so smart they had me nodding in appreciation. The very conscious turn of a head to sell a joke. Blocking the breakup of young Scrooge (Justus) and his betrothed (Alexandra Young) so that her eyeline meets old Scrooge\u2019s as he looks on in helpless horror. The strange sound the young boy (Dash Gomer) makes when he brings Scrooge the big turkey. As always, there\u2019s the big dance scene at Fezziwig\u2019s (uncredited, but I think it\u2019s J.D. Rinde, who navigates Jacob Marley while avoiding the caricature that is a natural hazard of that role) in Scrooge\u2019s Christmas past. This year\u2019s version might be the longest I\u2019ve seen, but it\u2019s also the best, played not as a dance staged for us but for themselves, the participants, fully alive in the festive communal moment. And the simple addition of a tambourine (handled by either Gomer or Nathaniel Toral, both of whom are just as perfect in their multiple roles as any of their older castmates), beating out four minutes of quarter notes to complement the piped-in music, helps immerse us in the world we\u2019re watching.<\/p>\n

Nicholson deserves many more chances to show what she can do. And my Christmas wish for this talented cast is that they will be so lucky as to have other opportunities with directors who are committed and capable enough to enable them to both sparkle this brightly as individuals and have their light so perfectly blended with the whole.<\/p>\n

Opening night was so good that in Act Two I became slightly nervous, the way you do when a pitcher on your favorite team takes a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Even if they\u2019re up 11-0, the bar is now set higher than mere victory. But even the audience was almost perfect (a Christmas miracle these days), with never more than a cough here or there to gum up the flow. After intermission, fearing I might be overlooking small shortcomings in light of how obviously great the show was overall, I couldn\u2019t help but actively seek out imperfections. The only one I found was a scene in which more dynamic blocking could have helped with audience sightlines (though the stasis was appropriate to the dramatic action of the moment) \u2014 something that stood out only because of how perfectly placed the actors were not just in every other scene but in every moment within each scene.<\/p>\n

The mise en sc\u00e8ne is [I\u2019m getting sick of using this word, but] perfect. Even without the striking vision of the above-mentioned troika (additional kudos to Milo Cote\u2019s makeup there and on Marley), Jennifer Lidikay & Christina Bayer\u2019s costumes would be carrying a lot of visual weight in what is perhaps the most minimalist A Christmas Carol in the Playhouse\u2019s history. And understated as it is, Miranda Richard\u2019s lighting never fails to perfectly [ack!] enhance the flow. There\u2019s an especially nice moment when the entire stage goes blue. It\u2019s hard to say why this works so well, but it\u2019s more than just looking nice. I suppose it\u2019s just part of the magic when every single element falls perfectly [whaddya want from me?!] into place.<\/p>\n

Although I am often offered a +1 when I come out to review a show, I\u2019m generally just as happy seeing a play alone as with good company. But I invited a friend to this one, who turned me down with the explanation that he\u2019s not particularly \u201cinto\u201d Christmas. How strange to categorize A Christmas Carol as if it is nothing but a Christmas thing, as if it can\u2019t possibly be viewed foremostly as a great piece of writing or a chance to enjoy a group of people endeavoring to conjure great art right in front of your eyes. I\u2019m sorry he missed out.<\/p>\n

Not to say that A Christmas Carol isn\u2019t also a Christmas thing, but of course Christmas isn\u2019t inherently any one thing. Like Fred, I find it \u2014 and A Christmas Carol itself \u2014 a reminder to be \u201ckind, forgiving, charitable, [\u2026] to open [our] shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below [us] as if they really were fellow\u2013passengers to the grave and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.\u201d<\/p>\n

I cannot think of a more transcendent sentiment, and I couldn\u2019t have wished for a better package for this annual gift than the one Long Beach Playhouse has put together this year. If there is any way you possibly can, see this show.<\/p>\n

A Christmas Carol at Long Beach Playhouse<\/p>\n

Times: Thurs\u2013Sat 8:00 p.m., Sun 2:00 p.m.
The show runs through Dec. 21.
Cost: $20 to $32 (plus $3\u2013$4 service fee if ordering online)
Details: (562) 494-1014; LBplayhouse.org<\/a>
Venue: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach<\/p>\n

Like this:<\/p>\n

Like Loading…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Mike Hardy From having seen more than half of Long Beach Playhouse\u2019s 13 prior stagings of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[50432,50433,9720,50434,131,133,132,9722],"class_list":{"0":"post-91079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-achristmascarol","9":"tag-axmascarol","10":"tag-curtaincall","11":"tag-longbeachplayhouse","12":"tag-long-beach","13":"tag-long-beach-headlines","14":"tag-long-beach-news","15":"tag-rln"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}