Raleigh Little Theatre and Actors Comedy Lab Review

Star Tony Hefner and his comic cohorts once again sparkle
in “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol” by Tom Mula

The joint Raleigh Little Theatre and Actors Comedy Lab production of Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, directed by ACL co-founder Rod Rich, is a welcome antidote to some of the more saccharine stories of the season. The unforgettable characters of 19th century English novelist Charles Dickens’ classic 1843 Christmas tale are all too familiar to countless generations weaned on the miracle story of miserly old misanthrope Ebenezer Scrooge’s improbable Christmas Eve conversion, after being scared straight by a series ghostly visitors.

In Marley, American playwright Tom Mula’s has put Scrooge’s erstwhile partner in greed Jacob Marley (wonderfully played here by Tony Hefner) at the center of a cheeky backstage version of the events most famously told in A Christmas Carol. Mula asks the question, “What happened to Marley?” -- and answers it with a whimsical -- but sometimes surprisingly poignant -- trip through the Afterlife (and Life) of Jacob Marley as he struggles to shed the onerous chains that he forged in life by agreeing to make a last-ditch effort to convert old Scrooge before Old Scratch arrives at his door -- as early as Christmas morning -- to summon him straight to Hell.

Skillfully employing the well-developed sense of the absurd amply demonstrated in his previous directorial efforts for ACL and RLT, director Rod Rich helps his stellar cast recreate their roles -- and they all play one main role throughout the show and many minor roles from scene to scene -- and he enhances the offbeat humor of this comic masterpiece by staging Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol with impish wit and great gusto in RLT’s Gaddy-Goodwin Teaching Theatre, where the show’s three-week run will resume Dec. 6-9 and 13-16.

Technical director and set, lighting, and costume designer Thomas Mauney stacks his solid black platforms higher than in 2005 and 2006 (to create more levels in the hereafter), illuminates the big moments of each actor with surgical precision, and dresses the RLT/ACL cast in a timeless ensembles that combine Dickensian tops with 21st-century blue-jean bottoms and boots. Mauney also combines with properties mistress Bunny Safron, sound designer Robert Neuhaus, and composer Larry Schanker to make Marley a great big present for Triangle theatergoers.

Tony Hefner, whose crackerjack characterization of crabby old fuss budget Jacob Marley anchored Actors Comedy Lab’s critically acclaimed December 2005 and 2006 productions in University Theatre at N.C. State’s Thompson Theatre, adds to his laurels as one of the Triangle’s finest comic actors. But his star turn in the third edition of Marley receives strong support from his three fellow cast members, who all reprise their roles with brio, getting better and better with each production.

Scott Nagel is a stitch as Marley’s treacherous partner Ebenezer Scrooge, a skinflint and a sneak who is secretly conspiring to expel his friend since childhood from their business. Underrated comic actor Jerry Zieman is a pip as the musty old heavenly Record Keeper, who shocks Marley by showing him how the sins that he committed in life cling to him like chains. Moreover, he must drag around them for eternity -- unless he can convert Scrooge. But is a pixilated performance by Izzy Burger as the Bogle, Marley’s saucy guide on his supernatural journey, who steals the show -- and helps make Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, for the third straight year, one of the must-see comedies of the Triangle Christmas season.

Raleigh Little Theatre and Actors Comedy Lab present Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 6-8 and 13-15, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Dec. 9 and 16, at 3 p.m. in RLT’s Gaddy-Goodwin Teaching Theatre, 301 Pogue St., Raleigh, North Carolina. $15 ($13 students and seniors), with a $2 discount per ticket for groups of 20 or more. 919/821-3111 or etix.com. RALEIGH LITTLE THEATRE: http://raleighlittletheatre.org/events/jacobmarley.html. ACTORS COMEDY LAB: http://www.actorscomedylab.com/next.html. Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol: http://www.tommula.com/JMCC.html. TOM MULA: http://www.tommula.com/. A CHRISTMAS CAROL (e-text of Charles Dickens’ 1843 Christmas classic, courtesy the University of Virginia): http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/DicChri.html.

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