Shorter ‘Nick’ Still Has Knack

In 1986, L.A. went gaga over “Nick Nick.” The Royal Shakespeare Company’s two-part “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby” at the Ahmanson introduced many Angelenos to the potential joys of really long theater. Within a few years, Los Angeles embraced other such epics: “Mahabharata,” “The Kentucky Cycle,” “Angels in America.”

Now, for the first time, a home-grown professional company is tackling “Nick Nick”--in the 99-seat Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills. Director Tom Quaintance, who made a splash in 1994-95 with his FreightTrain Shakespeare in Culver City, assembled a cast of 22 to cover more than 100 roles as well as the narration, which everyone shares. It’s a remarkably polished production, especially considering the low budgets of 99-seat theaters; the actors sketch one vigorous characterization after another, abetted especially well by Shon Le Blanc’s costumes and Debra Garcia-Lockwood’s lighting.

Quaintance uses a trimmed version of David Edgar’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel. The most obvious cuts involve the Kenwigs family, their tax collector uncle and his actress flame; all are missing here. The production is about two hours shorter than the original’s nearly nine hours. A few plot details are hazy, possibly owing to cuts, but all in all, cutting was smart. Nine hours in such close quarters as Theatre 40 might induce claustrophobia.

Despite this production’s many feats, however, “Nicholas Nickleby” isn’t as involving as it used to be. The original intoxicated, in the sense that many of us didn’t notice that the complexity of character development doesn’t begin to match the length.

Nicholas and his sister, Kate, are brave and kind throughout, despite their many travails, and they’re ultimately rewarded. They don’t take nearly as interesting a psychological journey as Pip and Estella do in Barbara Field’s dramatization of Dickens’ “Great Expectations,” which L.A. has come to love, thanks to an oft-revived production by A Noise Within that’s about half the length of this “Nicholas Nickleby.”

Nicholas’ uncle and nemesis, Ralph, starts out cold and cruel, displays glimmers of sympathy, but ultimately retreats into his previous shell.

Joseph Hodge (known as Joseph Haj in earlier L.A. stage roles) is a handsome, tormented Nicholas in the Roger Rees tradition. Moira Quirk is a stalwart Kate (yet gets to break out of her troubles by also playing the Crummles’ wacky Infant Phenomenon). Peter Ratray’s Ralph is formidably forbidding, Jonathan Read’s Smike heartbreaking, and Ed Martin’s Noggs utterly sympathetic.

Weston Blakesley’s deliciously mean Squeers, Jerry Beal and Jennie Ventriss as the flamboyant Crummles, Todd C. Mooney as both rough-hewn Browdie and the sneering cad Hawk, Maria Spassoff as the jealous Miss Knag, Nancy Daly as dizzy Mrs. Wititterley, and Jeffrey Winner in about a hundred disparate roles: All are wonderful.

BE THERE

“The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,” Theatre 40, Beverly Hills High School campus, 241 Moreno Drive. Part 1: Wednesdays, Fridays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 1 p.m. Part 2: Thursdays, Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 1 p.m. Ends Dec. 19. $15-$18. (323) 936-5842. Running times: Part 1, 3 hours. Part 2, 3 hours, 25 minutes.