Like 40 Productions revisits Daniel Sullivan’s popular holiday comedy at Kelsey Theatre.
By: Stuart Duncan
It’s getting to the point where there are almost as many productions of Inspecting Carol as there are in the area of the classic Dickens tale A Christmas Carol. The former is the brainchild of Daniel Sullivan and the Seattle Rep Company, first staged in 1991 and tremendously popular throughout the country as an alternative during the holiday season. It is as if Noises Off teamed up with Gogol’s An Inspector General and the two bumped into Charles Dickens on a one-way path.
The plot is simple: a regional theater company is having a dickens of a time mounting its annual production of the familiar story of the miser Scrooge, Marley and the ghosts. The show has traditionally been a crowd-pleaser and at the same time the saving grace for the company in dire financial straits. This year the straits are even more shoal-filled. The new general manager and accountant, Kevin, has told everyone that the company is broke. Moreover, even after so many years, it seems that four days may not be enough to get everyone ready for an audience. The leading man has taken to spouting Scrooge’s dialogue in Spanish; the girl playing all three ghosts is a newcomer, a low bow to multi-ethnicity; the artistic director, Zorah, hasn’t quite gotten over the death of last year’s ghosts (her husband actually), and Tiny Tim is now so large, any Bob Cratchit would have difficulty hoisting him on a shoulder.
Chaos ensues, especially when it is announced that the $30,000 federal funding is dependent on a good report from an investigator being sent out to scout them, and an unemployed, terrible young actor shows up, looking suspiciously like that personage.
The current revival is at Kelsey Theatre, on the campus of Mercer County Community College and is being produced by the Like 40 troupe. As in all such good farces, the better the actors, the funnier the evening, and this is a fine company. Director Dan Spalluto has paced the evening with verve, never allowed the slapstick to get out of control and found many moments to share a wide sense of humor. Alycia H. Bauch-Cantor has a romp as Zorah, the company’s artistic director, ranting, raging and cajoling with the best. Newcomer Bruce Frangione impresses as Kevin. Eve Connolly thoroughly enjoys herself as the English actress who actually knows something about "warm-ups." Kurt Penney actually sounds as if he might be fluent in Spanish. And Lyndsey Rose has a terrific laugh, which she uses to good effect.
You’ll have fun and you need only a modest knowledge in Dickens, although the more you know, the funnier it will be.
Inspecting Carol continues at Kelsey Theatre, Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road, West Windsor, through Nov. 20. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Tickets cost $12, $10 seniors/students. For information, call (609) 584-9444. On the Web: www.kelseytheatre.net

