Scrooge’s Baggage

David Cromwell ventures into his second year as the miserly curmudgeon in McCarter Theatre’s ‘A Christmas Carol.’

By:Josh Appelbaum
   A Christmas Carol, McCarter Theatre’s long-standing holiday tradition and a veritable cash cow, isn’t in danger of being put out to pasture anytime soon.
   Michael Unger, who has directed the current production written by David Thompson since 2000, says the reason the show has remained viable is due to the theater’s willingness to allow him, the actors and crew to reinvent the production each year. "They really embrace it and let us refine it and make changes where there’s room for improvement," Mr. Unger says.
   And David Cromwell, who will reprise the role of Ebenezer Scrooge, says this year’s turn on his character is sure to be even more fun for him and enjoyable for the audience than last year, when he first played Scrooge in theproduction.
   "I’m coming back to take advantage of all the work done last year, so I can enjoy it more," Mr. Cromwell says. "I can sympathize (with Scrooge more) and it’ll be a less arduous experience for me and I think it’s going to be fun."
   The actor has been busy in 2005, appearing in the Broadway production of Julius Caesar starring Denzel Washington, King Lear at Baltimore’s Center Stage, and most recently the Public/Delacorte’s As You Like It. Mr. Cromwell says he welcomes the detour from Shakespeare by doing something he’s never done in his 40-year career on stage, which is to reprise a role.
   For him, Ebenezer Scrooge is a tough role because of all the baggage that comes with the old miser. Scrooge lives at the periphery of society, Mr. Cromwell says, but he hopes the play might encourage audiences to cast off the least desirable attributes they share with his character. "The story is bigger than simply redemption," he says. "It’s about not living your own small insular life, but to live life the way you want to as a human."
   He says the chance to work with Mr. Unger and the children in the cast is the main reason why he’s back doing McCarter’s production of A Christmas Carol, which will run through Dec. 24.
   "Michael’s great," Mr. Cromwell gushes. "He’s done a beautiful job in casting… the children in the show are extraordinary and are great to have around. Usually I say keep the kids and the dogs away, but the young actors in the cast, like Danny Hallowell, who plays Tiny Tim, and all of the other kids, are just wonderful to work with."
   Children are integral to the production and presentation of A Christmas Carol. As Mr. Unger explains, Charles Dickens sought to write a pamphlet about the abuse of child laborers in the Cornwall Coast tin mining industry, but instead wrote the seminal novel about one man’s abuse of society at large as metaphor. He says he tries to keep Dickens’ original intentions grounded in the stage production of the play.
   "The impulse of Dickens to write this story is always foremost in my mind everyday when I’m directing and working with the children and I will never go against that," Mr. Unger says.
   To that end, Mr. Unger’s production shows young children, tired and dirty from working in the mines, hauling large loads across the stage.
   From the opposite perspective, he says the show is the first exposure to live theater for many school-aged children, and so he strives to make the play simple, straightforward, clear and precise to Dickens’ thrust.
   Mr. Unger describes the best thing about being a part of McCarter’s A Christmas Carol is getting kids to identify with the characters and experience live theater. "Maybe they’ll learn about how to improve the world through live theater or just learn to love the art form," he says. "It’s just not the same as watching a movie or TV."
   Mr. Cromwell says McCarter’s presentation of A Christmas Carol is more than holiday extravaganza, which is also in keeping with Dickens. "There’s a social commentary that needs to be there," he says.
   But conflicting ideas about how Dickens’ message is translated for contemporary audiences is somewhat troubling for Mr. Cromwell. "I don’t want to misrepresent what Dickens was trying to say, but in giving Christmas presents to the Cratchits and giving Bob Cratchit a raise, it’s a bit patronizing for capitalist (upper classes) to patronize to the lower class," he says.
   The director has a different point of view, and says universal themes in the play and the production’s popularity at McCarter since 2000 has given A Christmas Carol audiences a unique and wonderful experience at the theater.
   And Mr. Unger has also given a lot of young actors their first big break. "This production really brings the community into the theater," Mr. Unger says. "This year 130 kids auditioned for 13 parts."
   Expectations for young actors in Mr. Unger’s company are no different than their older counterparts. "There’s such a joy the kids bring to the production and the other actors in the show, but we don’t look at them as a unique challenge — everyone has to meet the same bar."
   Mr. Unger, who himself has 4-year-old twins, says if anything, he only works with child actors to "remove a layer of performance."
   "You have to show them that acting is about not acting," he says. "You know, stop rehearsing at home with your brothers and sisters and just come here and work on the stage, because that is the only place where they can really react to the people they’re performing with."
   The directorial method Mr. Unger uses, which eschews explicit stage direction and allows actors to interpret the characters, gives performers, especially the young ones, confidence on stage. He says his role is to refine performances by his actors.
   Critics and audiences have embraced Mr. Unger’s staging of A Christmas Carol since he replaced the previous McCarter staging with the David Thompson-adapted show, but the director says he and his production team have to work a bit harder every year to ensure it is up to snuff.
   About half the cast of this year’s A Christmas Carol have never performed in the show, allowing new depictions of characters and scenes that enliven the veteran performers. Mr. Unger says new cast members breathe life into the production and create nuance, much like ongoing technical and visual improvements heighten the spectacle.
   He says the extra time in rehearsal and in preparation for opening night is key to making the production worth seeing year-in, year-out.
   "That doesn’t make it easy on us. We could just hire the same actors and rehearse in a day and go up," Mr. Unger says. "We don’t rest on our laurels, we never have."
A Christmas Carol plays at McCarter Theatre, 91 University Place, Princeton, through Dec. 24. Performances: Dec. 10-11, 17-18, 1, 5:30 p.m.; Dec. 8-9, 14-16, 20-23, 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 23, 3 p.m.; Dec. 24, noon, 4 p.m. Tickets cost $31-$45. For information, call (609) 258-2787. On the Web: www.mccarter.org