STAGE REVIEWS : It’s ‘Scrooge,’ With and Without the Music : Cypress Production Is More for the Younger Set

Cypress College’s “A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley” seems designed primarily for a youthful audience. Director Mark Majarian has brought in a bagful of special effects. Bells gong loudly, shrieks and yelps echo; there are demons with incandescent peepers, and spirits enshrouded in stage fog.

Along these lines, Gil Morales’ set has the perspective of a children’s nightmare: The large cut-out scenery is cartoon-like and eerie, all flinty grays and drained-out colors.

Even the use of Marley as a narrator--the major innovation in this Israel Horovitz adaptation of Dickens’ venerable tale--appears intended to guide children through the story.

Because of these touches, this “Christmas Carol” may succeed at holding some young kids, but their parents and older siblings are likely to fidget. Despite all the gee-whiz moments, the production simply doesn’t involve as well as it should.

There are a few central problems. The first revolves around Majarian’s decision to use all of the Campus Theatre’s large stage. This makes some sense during the big crowd scenes. But the more intimate passages, when we’re supposed to grasp Scrooge’s personality, are all but lost, swallowed by the expanse. Even on the big stage, Majarian might have blocked the actors and sets nearer to the audience. As it is now, though, the action is removed several feet from the front row.

Another glitch: From where I sat, a gap in the scenery, toward the side, allowed a distracting view of the cast preparing backstage.

A bigger problem: Too many scenes are allowed to lag. The actors move about doing this and that, but they don’t push the action along. A prime example is when Scrooge all but cleans house in the long moments before Marley’s first midnight visitation. We grow impatient; let those Christmas ghosts get on with it!

Timothy D. French’s Scrooge looks too young, even with makeup and gray powder dusted in his hair. A Cypress College student, French does try to lend the character age and severity through a hobbled gait and biting manner, but it doesn’t always work. It’s an impression of Scrooge, not an embodiment.

In some ways, Ernest Jackson has the tougher role as Marley. The character hovers between a ghostly presence out to frighten (Jackson comes up with a lot of those maniacal laughs) and a hopeful moralist commenting on Scrooge’s soulful journey. It puts Jackson at a disadvantage, as he has trouble combining the two.

‘A CHRISTMAS CAROL: SCROOGE AND MARLEY’

A Cypress College production of Israel Horovitz’s adaptation of Dickens’ classic story. Directed by Mark Majarian. With Ernest Jackson. Timothy D. French. Terry Lee Tebbetts, Roreigh W. McCowan, Ryan Neil Holihan, Grant McKee, Amy Somers, David Billhimer, Danny Fehner, Robert Franks, Kimberly Nething, Ian A. McArthur, April Butcher, James Alexander, Caron Jackson, Lauralyn Kramer, Matthew Budds, Jason Berroteran, Merri McArthur, Andrea N. Harris, Karen L. O’Brien, Brandi Starbird, Tammy Pistulka, Linda Garen Smith, Carol Sue Tremmel, Ken Seyler, Linda Mellano, Jeanne Hime and Jaime Green. Sets by Gil Morales. Costumes and sound by Diana Polsky. Lighting by Steven M. Pliska. Choreography by Mitch Hanlon. Choral master Mitch Hanlon. Plays Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Campus Theatre, 9200 Valley View St., Cypress. Tickets: $4 to $5. (714) 826-2220.