Comedy Amid Chaos in ‘Carol’

When the curtain goes up, all you’re supposed to see is the effortless evocation of a play and its world, not the tortured effort--part Three Stooges, part “All About Eve”--that went into their creation.

But in “Inspecting Carol,” about a regional theater’s problem-plagued production of “A Christmas Carol,” Daniel Sullivan wants us to see the effort. He puts a funny spin on these vain but earnest theater artists and their fears that a National Endowment for the Arts snoop is about to recommend that they lose their NEA money. But behind the humor lies a sobering message that the arts in this country face serious challenges from shrinking audiences, dwindling income and endangered public funding.

Sullivan knows the terrain; he was artistic director of the famed Seattle Repertory Theatre when he and members of his company wrote this comedy in 1991. Since then, the play has fast become a holiday classic in its own right, with theaters pouncing on it as an alternative to the ubiquitous “Christmas Carols” that it parodies.

At the Long Beach Playhouse, director Steven Fiorillo and his community players deliver a winning--if occasionally stilted--rendition of the show in the larger of the facility’s theaters.

Fiorillo makes good use of the auditorium and its thrust stage, with performers frequently rushing in from other parts of the theater via the aisles. This reinforces our sense that we are witnesses to a disaster-in-the-making of epic proportions.

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Zorah Bloch (Amy Moorman), artistic director of the so-called Soapbox Theatre, has allowed just four days of rehearsal for the company’s annual production of “A Christmas Carol.”

Events are depriving her of even that scant time, however: The leading man (David Lindstedt), a knee-jerk liberal with a fondness for agitprop, is pushing for timely updates to the script. The secondary lead (Scott Roberts) has become disruptively melodramatic about his one-night stand with Zorah. The child actor playing Tiny Tim (Nicholas Bardales) is proving to be a not-so-tiny pain in the you-know-what.

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Worst of all, the managing director (Greg Hohn) announces that the Soapbox’s most recent subscription drive has delivered half the previous year’s numbers, and the NEA is threatening to withhold funding unless the theater gets a positive report from the auditor it is sending any day now. The company instantly concludes that the talentless actor who has just shown up to audition (Chris Aruffo) is, in fact, the auditor.

The upshot is a bastardized performance of Dickens’ classic, which would be still funnier if Fiorillo could tighten the long gaps (for set and costume changes) between the snippets that we get to see.

Performances are solid, although a bit more crispness here and there would greatly enhance the show. The sharpest characters are Keri Kropke’s testy, smart-mouthed stage manager; Jo Black-Jacob’s pretentious, English-bred diction coach; Roberts’ about-to-come-unhinged would-be Romeo, and Lindstedt’s emotionally threadbare leading man.

The text calls for the stage--like everything else--to collapse at the least opportune moments, and designer Eugene McDonald handily complies.

In snippets of gallows humor, the script acknowledges the ongoing “decency” campaigns against the NEA by making wry references to Karen Finley’s chocolate-smeared performance art, David Mamet’s obscenity-laced scripts and more. When things look grim, sometimes all you can do is laugh.

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* “Inspecting Carol,” Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St. 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, matinees 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23 and Dec. 7. Ends Dec. 13. $10-$15. (562) 494-1616. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.

Amy Moorman: Zorah Bloch

Keri Kropke: M.J. McMann

Chris Aruffo: Wayne Wellacre

Scott Roberts: Phil Hewlit

David Lindstedt: Larry Vauxhall

Jo Black-Jacob / alt. Karen Chapin: Dorothy Tree-Hapgood

Paul Teschke: Sidney Carlton

Nicholas Bardales /alt. Mario Mariotta: Luther Beatty

Kenneth McClain: Walter E. Parsons

Greg Hohn: Kevin Trent Emery

Keith Lardie: Bart Frances

Karen Chapin / alt. Heidi Motzkus: Betty Andrews

A Long Beach Playhouse production. Written by Daniel Sullivan and the Seattle Repertory Company. Directed by Steven Fiorillo. Set and lights: Eugene McDonald. Costumes: Donna Fritsche. Sound: Barry Schwam and Gary Parkhouse. Assistant director / stage manager: Kathy Pearson.