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REVIEW
Rusty Salling shines as Scrooge in Christmas Carol
By Arline Greer, "The Gainesville Sun"
November 29, 2007
How many ways can you say, "Bah! Humbug!"? Angrily? Spitefully?
Desperately? With a sneering, nasal intonation implying perhaps that you
are above it all? You can bet money that in his 18 years of playing
Scrooge for The Hippodrome State Theatre's A Christmas Carol,
Rusty Salling has tried them all, and perfected them all.
In the 30th anniversary
production of A Christmas Carol, now playing at The Hippodrome,
Salling comes up with the longest "Bah! Humbug!" yet heard in this
time-honored production. The audience holds its collective breath as
Salling's Ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ah resonates through the theater like an
opera star's resounding high "C."
Over the years, Salling
has made the role of Scrooge his own. He has played the old miser with
cold calculation and with a lifted eyebrow. In this production, he gives
Scrooge a comic turn, portraying the old gent much like a cartoon
character who has stepped out of a Dr. Seuss story.
The original A
Christmas Carol was written by Charles Dickens in 1843. He called it
his "little Christmas Book" and it was tremendously popular, selling
6,000 copies in its first week. Since that time, the story has been
adapted for the stage, for films and for radio and television. A
morality story dealing with poverty and injustice, it follows Ebenezer
Scrooge, the miser, on a path to redemption.
Mary Hausch's
interpretation of the classic moves swiftly through the past events in
Scrooge's life, touching on those that made him the man he is today. The
present holds valuable lessons for him when he visits the impoverished
home of his maltreated employee, Bob Cratchit (played with warmth and
humor by Cameron Francis), who is sitting down to a poor Christmas
dinner with his wife (Robyn Berg) and children. The present gives way to
the future where Scrooge is allowed to see that he dies unmourned and
reviled.
All these revelations are
made possible by Jacob Marley, his dead business partner and now a
wretched ghost, played by Gregory Jones like the Master of Ceremonies of
"This Is Your LIfe, Ebenezer Scrooge." Marley arranges for Scrooge to be
visited by three ghosts: Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas
Future.
Christmas Past, played by
Nell Page, dressed all in white, brings a lovely benign presence to
Scrooge's bedside and escorts him to places meaningful in his unhappy
childhood. Ghost of Christmas Present, cloaked in crimson and adorned
with Christmas wreaths, is played by Ted Stephens III with ebullient
good humor, notwithstanding the visit he makes with Scrooge to Bob
Cratchit's poverty-stricken home during Christmas dinner.
Robert M. Smith is
downright scary as the giant Ghost of Christmas Future. Covered all in
black and faceless, he utters not a sound as he shows Scrooge the fate
that awaits him if he doesn't change his ways.
But, as almost everyone
knows, A Christmas Carol is a story with a happy ending. Scrooge
awakens to the realization that he's been a stingy man. He resolves to
change and immediately purchases a huge turkey (designed by Marilyn Wall
30 years ago for The Hippodrome's first production of A Christmas
Carol) and hauls it to the Cratchit home where he contributes it to
their Christmas dinner. He becomes a benefactor to his community. No
longer is he heard saying, "Bah! Humbug!" when the word "Christmas" is
spoken. (With Rusty Salling in the role, audiences can be sure of a new
variation of those words in next season's production of the show.)
Sara Morsey deftly
directed this compact production of A Christmas Carol. Marilyn A.
Wall designed its Victorian costumes. Carlos Asse is responsible for the
simple set and Lorelei Esser designed the props. Robert P. Robins'
special effects include a flying ghost and characters rising out of a
thick, gray mist accompanied by thunderous noise.
One 6 year old was heard
asking, "Why does it have to be loud and scary?" Prior to hearing the
show's opening lines, it probably is a good idea to explain to young
children that what they will be seeing is just make believe.
The Hippodrome's A
Christmas Carol is a tour de force for Rusty Salling. He gets lots
of help from a very large cast which includes 30 children, all of whom
look delighted to be taking part in this 30th anniversary edition of the
show.
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