Variety - November 19, 2003
Marley's Ghost
(Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, 80 seats; $20 top)
Circle X Theater Co. presents a play in one act by Jeff Goode. Directed by Matthew Bretz.
Marley/Young Marley - Keythe Farley
Scrooge/ Young Scrooge - Bob Clendenin
Gigantic Spirit - Johanna McKay
Phantom - Richard Augustine
Diminutive Spirit - Kevin Fabian
Bob Cratchit - Matt Ford
Tiny Tim - David Paul Wichert
Jenny/Mrs. Fezziwig - Ally LoPrete
Mrs. Cratchit - Rebecca Avery
By JULIO MARTINEZ
The weatherman certainly cooperated with this legit's opening scene grave-site premise of Marley's rain-drenched remains being haggled over by his stingy-to-the-max partner Scrooge (Bob Clendenin) and the presiding Reverend (Todd Sible). When Scrooge refuses to pay the holy man for his services, the Reverend damns Marley's spirit, condemning it to wander the earth without hope of eternal rest.
But when the faceless Phantom (Richard Augustine) comes to send Marley on his everlasting journey of chain-bound angst, he finds a cantankerous, manipulative old coot who manages to finagle a trial, presided over by a Gigantic Spirit (Johanna McKay) and prosecuted by the Diminutive Spirit (Kevin Fabian). By this time, the proceedings have moved to the warmer, indoor environment of an immense mausoleum.
The three spirits are a hoot, and Bretz stages the trial with appealing commedia-style flair as Marley is taken back through his history of misdeeds over the years, paralleling Scrooge's history. However, Goode's text fails to create any empathy for this scalawag, who was rotten right from the beginning. It turns out it was the youthfully lascivious Marley who corrupted idealistic young Scrooge when they were clerks for good-hearted Mr. Fezziwig. When Scrooge finds Marley having his way with Mrs. Fezziwig (Ally LoPrete) in the cloakroom, he allows himself to be swayed by Marley's scheme to blackmail the lady into signing over her husband's business to them, thereby creating the firm of Marley & Scrooge.
There is also some heavy-handed, overly expository business that justifies the designation of Bob Cratchit (Matt Ford) as Marley's nephew, forced to work for a pittance as the firm's clerk. This allows Marley's heart to eventually soften at the plight of crippled Tiny Tim (David Paul Wichert), find personal redemption and plead with the spirits to let him have a go at saving Scrooge from suffering his own plight.
If this legiter had been staged in a conventional theatrical environment, it might have held interest as a clunky but well performed homage to Dickens' masterpiece. But Circle X's over-achieving efforts to create a vast panorama out of a minor landscape proves a disservice to the original work and to all the admirable effort that went into its creation.