Review: ‘Inspecting Carol’ at Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre

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Scrooge may fear the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, but theaters dread a different visitation: the evaluator from the National Endowment of the Arts, who decides whether your art deserves a government check.

“Inspecting Carol,” Daniel Sullivan and the Seattle Repertory Company’s winning backstage satire now at the Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre, imagines the resulting train wreck when a regional theater mistakes an incompetent actor (Doug Haverty) for an NEA evaluator. With operations running in the red and only a few rehearsals left for their annual cash cow, the director (Kady Douglas) and her bean counter (Fox Carney) jettison artistic integrity with record speed to curry favor with their guest. Pretty soon the lame thespian is reconceiving Dickens’ classic in all directions, including working with the cast’s sole actor of color (Disraeli Ellison) to insert anti-imperialist monologues. Even Tiny Tim’s sexuality gets a makeover.

“Carol” is a delicious excuse to skewer familiar stage offenders: the supercilious British voice coach, the needy male lead, the spoiled child actor, the god-awful audition monologue from “Richard III.” The ensemble relishes the sendups — Carney is wonderfully harassed, and Kent Butler shines as a supporting actor smarting from his director’s brush-off — although a tired prop turkey almost steals the show. If Judith E. and Chris Winfield’s production disperses some its comic energy, it delivers plenty of affectionate laughs for this deeply silly and magical profession.

--Charlotte Stoudt

“Inspecting Carol” Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. No performances Christmas weekend. Ends Jan. 11. $20. (818) 700-4878. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

Caption: Klair Bybee, left, and Larry Eisenberg in ‘Inspecting Carol.’ Credit: Doug Engalla