Scrooge as a gay fashion mogul
With both the recession and holiday season now official, “A Christmas Carol” returns to Celebration Theatre. What a difference a year makes. First seen in 2007, Jason Moyer’s newly revised gay take on the immortal Dickens tale improves on itself considerably.
It still concerns fashion mogul Ebenezer “Ben” Scrooge, whom returning Michael Taylor Gray plays as Miranda Priestly from “The Devil Wears Prada” possessed by Mr. Burns of “The Simpsons.” Since partner Jacob Marley’s death, Scrooge has abandoned goodwill, spurning charity solicitors, saying “pshaw!” to the invitation from nephew Fred (Christopher Grant Pearson). Although employee Bobby (John Michael Beck) has his own family traumas, the design house of S&M; will be working overtime through Christmas. Fashionistas are agog.
Not nearly as agog, however, as Scrooge becomes when Marley and various yuletide spirits appear to retrieve his humanity. Christmas Past (Charlene Modeste) is a sultry diva fronting girl-group singers Joy Sudduth and Lindsay Wray; Christmas Present (Vash Boddie) is a clubster in gold lame shorts; and so forth, with most updated analogies to Dickens clearer than before.
Director Michael A. Shepperd shrewdly shepherds his sharp designers -- especially Suzanne Scott, whose costumes wittily move from monochrome stark to rainbow whimsy -- and festive ensemble in multiple roles around Gray’s droll Scrooge, with Sean Lambert and Michael Mullen hilarious as the solicitors.
Some residual kitschy overkill lingers, but the main liability is that Moyer’s narrative doesn’t quite carry the cultural and textual space to match its intended scope. For example, making Tiny Tim an ailing uncle (Michael O’Hara) is admirable, yet the situation lacks the topical poignancy that, say, a foster child scenario might supply.
Nonetheless, if this “Carol” remains too compact for maximum emotional reach, proponents are unlikely to mind. It certainly dons its gay apparel.
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‘A Christmas Carol’
Where: Celebration Theatre, 7051-B Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Dec. 21.
Price: $20
Contact: (323) 947-1884
Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
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