‘Christmas Carol’-er Tunes Up

Even now, in his 12th year humbugging around as Scrooge in South Coast Rep’s annual production of “A Christmas Carol,” Hal Landon Jr. finds that putting on all that makeup is a pain.

First there’s the hair, then there’s the chin, then there’s the nose, then this, then that. It can take more than an hour and a half just to get ready. This year, however, things have been a little easier: Landon grew a beard, cutting the preparation in half.

“I wasn’t so sure (about it) at first,” said Landon, 50, who has been with the repertory company for more than two decades, “but now I kind of like it. It looks all right. And it does reduce all that makeup time.”

Actually, Landon grew the beard for an episode of NBC’s “Quantum Leap” called “A Little Drop of Rain” that aired a few weeks ago. He played a Texas farmer suffering through a drought. Scott Bakula, the show’s star, “leaped” into the body of a rainmaker. “I had one really good scene,” Landon said. “I try to trade my chickens for the rainmaker’s services.”

He has several good scenes in “A Christmas Carol.” The SCR adaptation of the Dickens holiday staple puts Scrooge at the center of almost everything.

“Some people do wonder how I can keep doing it, over and over again,” said Landon. “But I just love the role. It’s such a satisfying character, with all the changes Scrooge goes through.

“There are so many emotional ups and downs, him going from a famous miser to a philanthropist; it’s very challenging and interesting all the way through. And, of course, it always gets me in the Christmas mood.”

To help keep himself interested, Landon has toyed with slightly different interpretations. His first efforts aimed for “a more comic side” of Scrooge. Last year he reached for “the darker, dramatic elements.” The latest incarnation, which Landon plays through Christmas Eve, strives for a “happy medium.

“I don’t want it to be too dark, but I want there to be a sense that he’s older, maybe more intractable. I hope (to create) the sense that time is becoming a real factor for him, that he has to make the changes in his life quickly,” and that this makes him “seem more vulnerable.”

Landon remembers, a little painfully, the first time he played Scrooge.

It was 1980, and the Yuletide show was only an experiment then, not the acclaimed annual event it has become, and Landon was into a bit of experimenting himself. Near the play’s end, he thought he would add an exclamation point to Scrooge’s physical and moral rebirth by doing an acrobatic leap out of bed.

The thing is, he forgot that he was wearing a very long nightgown. “I vaulted over the bed, and the gown caught, landing me right on my head,” he recalls. “There was an audible gasp from the audience. I picked myself up, sort of, and wobbly continued.”

Then there was the time a few years later when a scrim failed to rise at a crucial moment. Scrooge was pleading with the spirit of Christmas future and the stagehands were trying to lift the scrim.

“The thing just wouldn’t rise, so, after a moment or so, I finally turned to the spirit and said, ‘I need your help here.’ And, lo and behold, the scrim went up. The audience thought that was pretty funny.”

Landon’s favorite roles at SCR, where he has been a member since 1967, cover a spectrum, from Bradley in Sam Shepard’s “Buried Child” to Astrov in Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.” He has also found time for Hollywood: He played Ted’s rigid dad-dude, Captain Logan, in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and the sequel, “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.”

Like many people, he was surprised when the first movie, a lesson in Southern California teen-talk and cinema silliness, became such a success.

“When I read the script, I had some misgivings. . . . I worried that it might be kind of rinky-dink. It certainly turned out all right, very funny.” Landon was also pleased with the sequel--especially the scene in which Captain Logan is invaded by Ted’s spirit.

“A Christmas Carol” continues Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. with Saturday matinees at 2:30 and Sunday performances at noon and 4 p.m., through Dec. 24 at South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $16 to $25. Information: (714) 957-4033.