Ghosts, Misers and Redemption

Paul Benedict finds his Scrooge in McCarter Theatre’s ‘A Christmas Carol.’

By: Anthony Stoeckert
   Ebenezer Scrooge is such an iconic character that his last name is used to define a "miserly person" in Merriam Webster’s dictionary. Just how popular is Charles Dickens’ story of Scrooge’s redemption? A title search for "A Christmas Carol" on Internet Movie Database brings up 26 results and eight partial matches, and that doesn’t include such interpretations as Bill Murray’s Scrooged, or versions featuring the Muppets, Mr. Magoo and Rich Little.
   There are even more Christmas Carols out there, including countless stage productions. A search on Internet Theatre Database results in six productions in the 1990s alone, everything from Madison Square Garden’s long-running extravaganza to Patrick Stewart’s one-man reading of Dickens’ text. Then there are the countless productions that will take place on stages big and small throughout the country. With all that Bah! Humbug-ing going on, it’s easy to forget just how good a story A Christmas Carol is, and that Scrooge is one of the all-time great characters.
   Paul Benedict is one person who hasn’t forgotten. This season he’ll take the stage as Scrooge in McCarter Theatre’s highly regarded production of the seasonal classic. And the actor is fully aware of just how good a part he has.
   "Anyone with half a brain should want to play it," Mr. Benedict says during a break in rehearsal. "What you find out… from the acting point of view (is) it’s like a Shakespearean role in that if you use Charles Dickens’ language, it’s so incredibly rich. It feels like Shakespeare when you say it."
   The journey Scrooge takes is also part of the appeal.
   "(It’s such an) emotional trip from being the worst bastard in the world to being one of the best people in the world," says Mr. Benedict, who played Scrooge once before in a Boston production in the 1990s.
   Playing Scrooge requires tapping into a wide range of emotions. From anger and bitterness at the beginning, to fear during the encounter with Jacob Marley’s ghost to sadness and regret and the ultimate in joy, the role is an emotional roller coaster.
   "Sometimes (you go) from being furiously angry one minute to being in tears and very upset 20 seconds later," Mr. Benedict says. "It’s quite an amazing ride, but well worth it."
   When asked if he has a personal favorite scene from the play, Mr. Benedict points to the moment when Scrooge, during his visits to Christmases pasts, sees a conversation between his younger self and the girl he loved at a party thrown by his then-boss Fezziwig.
   "He has to watch the moment when she breaks up with the young him and why she does it, it’s completely his fault," Mr. Benedict says. "I find that almost impossible to take. It’s so strong. It literally just about drives me crazy. Part of you loves it because it’s what you want as an actor, but the other side of it is just harrowing."
   Audiences will be familiar with Mr. Benedict’s work in film and television, particularly his role as British neighbor Harry Bentley (though Mr. Benedict isn’t British; he was born in New Mexico) on The Jeffersons. His film work includes parts in The Goodbye Girl (where he played a disaster of a director), The Freshman and several of Christopher Guest’s comedies.
   The movies he’s made with Mr. Guest include A Mighty Wind, This Is Spinal Tap (which Mr. Guest co-wrote and starred in but didn’t direct) and, most memorably, Waiting for Guffman, in which Mr. Benedict played an audience member of a play the cast has mistaken for a big-time producer.
   Mr. Guest’s technique is quite different from the norm. His scripts have no dialogue, with the actors working off a scenario and coming up with the words themselves.
   "You ad-lib everything," Mr. Benedict says of working with Mr. Guest. "He’s wonderful. He’ll write a script that says, ‘Now here your character comes into a room and this character’s there and you and him talk for a minute or two.’"
   A Christmas Carol at McCarter is a 26-year tradition, with the current production, conceived and directed by Michael Unger, entering its ninth year. Though it’s not a musical where characters break out in song, it does feature original music. All of the Christmas carols and songs sung at parties were written specifically for Mr. Unger’s interpretation of the story and are meant to sound as if they existed in Victorian England. The script essentially follows the adaptation used at McCarter since 1991, with certain elements from Dickens added by Mr. Unger in 2000.
   One of those Dickensian touches is a line Marley’s ghost says to Scrooge that was not in earlier productions: "How it is that I appear before you in a shape you can see, I may not tell. I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day."
   "To me, that really took me by surprise — it meant that for seven years since Marley died, he’s been sitting there waiting for Scrooge to be able to see him," Mr. Unger says, "which meant that the tools for Scrooge’s redemption lay around him all the time, as they do for all of us. We all have room for improvement if we take that initiative, (and) Scrooge is the prime example of one who doesn’t do that."
   In order to raise the stakes for Marley, Mr. Unger added a touch of his own. In the McCarter version, the night the action takes place represents Marley’s last chance to save Scrooge and avoid an awful eternal purgatory.
   Mr. Unger says the production gets tweaked a little each year, but the biggest changes come with new cast members, and no change has a bigger impact than the introduction of a new Scrooge. According to the director, Mr. Benedict has brought a sense of humor to rehearsals and a commitment to the role.
   "It’s been fun to find, for him, the real natural connections to this role where you really need to do very little to get this story across," Mr. Unger says. "I think… he’s been surprised at how profoundly moving the piece is. He’s said in rehearsal several times that he can’t get through it without getting emotionally involved and he didn’t expect that."
   Another important aspect of the production is the contribution made by 14 children who appear in the play. According to Mr. Unger, Dickens originally intended to write a pamphlet on the evils of child labor after seeing children as young as 6 working long hours hauling train cars full of coal, metal and ore like mules during a visit to the Cornwall Coast of England. (Dickens himself slaved in a debtors’ prison to pay his father’s debt.) Wanting something more powerful than a pamphlet, he instead wrote A Christmas Carol.
   "What’s interesting is that ‘Christmas Carol’ is not about child-labor abuse," Mr. Unger says. "It’s about a guy who has no generosity of spirit, and society will fall apart if people who can help don’t, and that’s the lesson for all of us in it."
   With so many actors having put their stamp on Scrooge, Mr. Benedict is asked if there’s a challenge in giving the character his own unique touch.
   "I don’t think of it as a challenge, but I guess every role has a challenge that it’ll be yours," he says. "For each actor, (you think), ‘It’ll be my role, it’s my Scrooge.’ And that’s always true and that’s the way it should be. That’s why it’s a living art. It should be unique to that production. I don’t know what the reaction will be here, I’m right in the thick of it."
A Christmas Carol will play at McCarter Theatre, 91 University Place, Princeton,
Dec. 3-24. Performances: Dec. 3, 5:30 p.m.; Dec. 7-8, 13-15, 20-22, 7:30 p.m.;
Dec. 9-10, 16-17, 23, 1, 5:30 p.m., Dec. 24, noon, 4 p.m. For information, call
(609) 258-2787. On the Web: www.mccarter.org