Cast members during opening act of Christmas Carol at BGSU’s Donnell Theatre of the Wolfe Center for the Arts. (Photos: J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune)

Just in time for the holidays Scrooge is returning to his old haunts at Bowling Green
State University.
While the Department of Theatre’s production of "A Christmas Carol" has a
new home in the Donnell Theatre in the Wolfe Center, the scenery with its askew
London storefronts, and many costumes are recycled from previous productions.

Which is not to say this is the same old show. The university’s "Carols"
are ever a work in progress with subtle and not so subtle tweaks and shifts of
tone. And there’s always a new Scrooge and Tiny Tim and the rest. This year they
return to Margaret McCubbin’s adaptation with Geoff Stephenson directing.
The show opens tonight at 8 and continues Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. with matinees
at 2 on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $10.
Jeff LaRocque does the honors as Scrooge. He’s an angry, belligerent, rather agitated
Scrooge with little sense of sarcasm about him, who turns soft at the first
memories of bygone days. In the scene where his sweetheart Belle (Janina
Bradshaw breaks off their engagement the spectral Scrooge tries to advise his
younger self (Chad Campbell).

Jeff LaRocque as Scrooge with Eric Batts as Bob Crachit

Narrators Eli Brickey and Tyler Stouffer perform on stage at BGSU’s Donnell Theatre in the opening scene of “A Christmas Carol.”

With narrator Jake Sabinsky front and center the cast of ‘A Christmas Carol’ gathers on stage

His Scrooge fits well with the tone of the production which plays up the comic,
rather than spooky aspects. That comedy was evident at the start when Ethan
Brown strolled on stage to give the standard instructions about emergency exits
and cell phones to the audience. Then the cast of about three-dozen bursts forth
from the back of the house singing. This establishes the festive, convivial mood
that predominates.
The conceit of the production is that this is a troupe staging this. Four narrators –
Jake Sabinsky, J.J. Luster, Eli Brickey and Tyler Stouffer – divvy up the scene
setting provided by Charles Dickens. I know the amount of narration in various
productions is always a matter of debate. As a lover of the book, I’m inclined
to favor more rather than less. Dickens’ turns of phrase are as important as the
music and lighting to establish the atmosphere of the piece.
The four narrators sound like they’re just telling you a bedtime story.
The plot itself is so well known – I don’t have to worry about spoiler alerts, I hope
– and so twisted to other uses, I need not rehearse it here. Still it’s always
welcome to have the story presented largely untouched.
We have the browbeaten clerk Bob Crachit (Eric Batts) and Scrooge’s effusive nephew
Fred, as full of holiday vim and vigor as his uncle is of ill-tempered humbug.

Some of the hauntings, especially that of Marley’s Ghost (Luster) prompt chuckles of
recognition. Maybe it’s a lost cause to hope that this could ever be scary
again.
The lighter touch is especially evident in the scene with Old Joe (Gibbs) where the
undertaker’s helper (C.J. Barrett), laundress (Chelsea Herzog) and charwoman
(Libbie Ruch) all pawn items pinched from Scrooge as he lay dead, and play the
scene for laughs, without the sinister undertone.
The story inevitably ends up as a progression of set pieces with the party at
Fezziwigs with its "Good King Wenceslas" skit featuring a young
Scrooge and Fezziwig (Vince Gibbs), the dance and ending chorale being the most
elaborate.
The most touching scenes are those featuring the Crachit brood – Kerbie Minor as his
wife with Logan Richardson, Mary Ritchey, Skylar Frishman, Grayson Frishman and
Rose Walters. Bob Walters as Tiny Tim gets the show’s big line. All that’s
demanded of Tiny Tim is he be cute and enunciate that one "God bless us,
everyone!" Based on the ah-reaction he elicited he filled the bill though
knowing the extent of this pint-sized thespian’s acting chops I found myself
wishing he had more to do.
Musical director Jared Dorotiak has relied on traditional English carols fitting of
the time. Two minstrels, fiddler Mike Dandron and guitarist Mikey Espinosa, are
on stage much of the time providing accompaniment to the vocalists.
The chorale singing is lustrous, full of rich harmonies. Stephenson likes to
surrounded the audience with singers and let them loose. For me the highlight
though was the brief scene set in a Welsh mine where two females (Herzog and
Gretchen Davison) sing an evocative and aching Welsh melody with harmonies by
Libby Ruch, Matt Sierra and Jeff Sneed.
The play ends with voices all around singing "We Wish You a Merry
Christmas" having already delivered 100 minutes or so of holiday cheer.