George Street Playhouse actors Dan Lauria and Peter Scolari do their best to keep from cracking up in ‘Inspecting Carol.’
By:Jillian Kalonick
Tiny Tim is not so tiny anymore. Scrooge is a human rights crusader. Bob Cratchit is sleeping with the managing director. Last year, someone died while wearing the Ghost of Christmas Future costume.
It’s obviously not A Christmas Carol, but Daniel Sullivan’s Inspecting Carol, a farce about a struggling regional theater attempting to once again mount a production of Dickens’ holiday mainstay. Only none of the actors are competent, the theater is quickly running out of cash, and the arrival of a National Endowment of the Arts inspector is imminent.
The comedy will run at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick Nov. 29 through Dec. 31, with Dan Lauria reprising the role of Larry, who plays Scrooge, from George Street’s 1997 production. Peter Scolari will play Wayne, the bumbling novice actor who has no idea just how bad he is. GSP’s David Saint will direct the show.
Anyone who has ever been on or around regional stages will recognize the theater personalities that clash in Inspecting Carol the overbearing managing director, the actor who finds a new, completely ridiculous interpretation of his role, the egotistical young new star and, of course, performances that are so much worse than the performer realizes.
"A lot of people wonder how all of us are having so much fun doing these characters," says Mr. Lauria, who is well-known for his role as the gruff father on TV’s The Wonder Years, and appeared at GSP last year in The Winning Streak. "It’s because we know these people. The audience thinks we’re spoofing, but for each one of us I can tell you of a pro who’s a lot like that."
Mr. Lauria also sees truth in the plotline about funding from the National Endowment of the Arts. "I was really at odds with Jane Alexander and some of the NEA people over new plays," he says. "I wouldn’t give a grant to any theater that doesn’t do all new plays." Political issues aside, the main theme of Inspecting Carol, he says, is pure fun.
"David Saint is without a doubt the best audience I’ve ever played to," says Mr. Lauria. "All he does is laugh. We can’t get through a rehearsal if we don’t crack up, he does. I think the hardest thing about this play is getting through it without cracking. It’s just silly. It’s actors making fun of themselves, and people like to see that."
While Mr. Lauria’s character has played Scrooge for countless years, Peter Scolari’s Wayne is literally just walking into the theater. His audition scene for the company is the opening monologue from Richard III.
"Just before he does it, my character runs out and I’m supposed to hand him a cup of coffee," explains Mr. Lauria. "The other day, I handed him a cup of coffee and a doughnut. And everybody said, ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’ What Peter does with that doughnut is almost sacrilege. Of course we lose it every time he does it. When he does that audition scene, we’re going to be looking upstage, because we’ll lose it. He never does it the same way twice, and he shouldn’t. God knows what he’s going to do with that doughnut today.
"Peter Scolari may be the funniest man I’ve ever met in my life," he continues. "He says these lines and five minutes later you laugh. He’s one of the best physical comedians I’ve ever seen. His character walks from the seats in the theater to the stage, and we lose it just from his walk."
Inspecting Carol also stars Peggy Cosgrave, Catherine Cox, Randy Donaldson, MacIntyre Dixon, Wally Dun, Michael Mastro, Mary Catherine Wright, John Keller, Aaron Wilton and Christopher Stewart. The production will be different every time because the pivotal role of Betty Andrews will be played by a number of New Jersey celebrities, including former Gov. Christie Todd Whitman Dec. 3. Sen. Barbara Buono and Carol Hebert, chairwoman of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, also will have cameos.
The laugh is often on the actors in the show, says Mr. Scolari, when they realize life is imitating art.
"Not only are there people we know that are like the characters in this show we are some of these people, to greater or lesser degrees," he says. "Even in the play, we’ll stop and analyze and talk about what our characters would or wouldn’t do, and then we look at each other and realize, ‘Oh my God, this is a comedy, and we’re taking it very seriously.’"
Of course, playing comedy is a serious undertaking, he adds, but "to be dangerously free and available for happy accidents to happen in rehearsal is in the spirit of this play, and the audience will be most satisfied if they feel they’re looking at an accident."
The spontaneity of the play, he says, requires a tight-knit cast. "This is a true ensemble show," says Mr. Scolari. "It’s not set up for the larger or broader written characters to get the biggest laugh at once. Every single character will win for the home team. We have to stick together very closely."
Perhaps the most challenging part for him has been playing a bad actor, he says like in that Richard III monologue. "In every phrase I have to jump off every familiar discipline that allows me to do what I do as an actor," he says. "I have to body slam it, and then act badly. My character has to believe that the choice he’s making is what actors do. I have to fight my natural instincts to make sense of a line. It’s some of the most difficult acting I’ve done, is to act poorly."
Mr. Scolari earned four Emmy nominations for his role on TV’s Newhart, and starred alongside Tom Hanks in Bosom Buddies, has appeared in Hairspray and Sly Fox on Broadway, and plays a bishop in Big Love, HBO’s upcoming series about the Mormon church, produced by Hanks. He says doing Inspecting Carol is the most fun he’s had on stage in 20 years.
"I’ve been doing this for 31 years, and I have to go back to early TV and before that off-Broadway in the mid-’70s to find a frame of reference to say I had fun like this," he says. "It’s not been a sour, unhappy 31 years I’ve had a wonderful time. But not like this."
Inspecting Carol plays at George Street Playhouse, 9 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, Nov. 29-Dec. 31. Performances: Tues.-Sat. 8 p.m.; Sun. 2, 7 p.m.; Dec. 3, 8, 17, 22-23, 26, 28-29, 31, 2 p.m.; no 8 p.m. performance Dec. 24; no performances Dec. 25, 27. Tickets cost $20-$60, $15 students select shows. For information, call (732) 246-7717. On the Web: www.gsponline.org

