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A review by ebar.com
A Queer Carol, Joe Godfrey's modern-day gay variation on the Dickens classic, adds several dark twists to the simple morality tale. In the case of Ben Scrooge, an evil old queen, it's the very fact that he preferred humbuggery to buggery that he is alive and well and available for spiritual transformation. His lover, Jake Marley, didn't fare so well, succumbing to AIDS that the play blames on his sexual escapades while sourpuss Ben sat sulking uninfected at home.

Then again, this Scrooge has deep-seated issues with which the original Scrooge didn't have to deal. Like the abusive father who berates young Ben for being a sissy in a scene that the grown Scrooge revisits during his journeys with the Ghost of Christmas Past. After being shipped off to boarding school, his gay-bashing classmates continue the harassment. His anti-social ways have a foundation that Dickens didn't provide his Scrooge.

If all this makes it sound as if A Queer Carol, now at New Conservatory Theatre Center, is unexpectedly serious, well, it is. Scrooge did see dead people in A Christmas Carol, but he didn't see loved ones die slow and horrible deaths. Still, you don't put "queer" in the title and not have something to back it up.

Like a Ghost of Christmas Past who is a reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe, or a Ghost of Christmas Present who is a black diva who instructs Scrooge to "bring your ass over here." And there is plenty of campy banter among the characters when Scrooge is not around to put his damper on things.

A Queer Carol had its premiere in New York in 2001 with no intermission and a running time of just over 90 minutes. At NCTC, the play has two acts and runs more than two hours, perhaps because of additions by the author or perhaps because NCTC, which now has a liquor license, sells a lot of drinks during the break.

Some of the extra length may arise from the musical numbers that open each act, and that don't quite work because of blasting amplification and uneasily performed choreography. These may be among director Clay David's efforts to add his own glitter to the play, but the best moments are those when the production sticks to the storyline. David has been able to balance the serious and the comic, which reside side by side in the script, and we don't feel yanked about during the abrupt mood changes. The multiple scene changes also pass smoothly on Bruce Walters' simple unit set, on which John Kelly's lighting design helps define the changing scenes. The changing eras, from 1960s to the present, are telegraphed in the director's costume designs.

In this variation on Dickens, Scrooge is a successful, demanding designer who, besides believing that Christmas is a bore, believes those with AIDS got what they deserved. Dann Howard plays Scrooge with a mannered high attitude that helps disguise the fact that he is too young and buff for a character whose appearance is constantly mocked.

The hardest worker in the cast is Sheelagh Murphy, who makes multiple (and credible) quick changes that include a zaftig Marilyn Monroe, a dumpy Russian housekeeper, and a wisecracking Latina lesbian. Michael Vega, who plays Scrooge's homophobic father with conviction, is also the hunky Jake Marley, whose ghost looks to have been costumed by Mr. Marcus.

An agreeable Jerry A. Deal plays both the kindly Bob Cratchit and silly-queen Fezziwig, while Andrew Calabrese sweetly plays Bob's ailing lover Tim as well as the young Scrooge (with Sam Rubin handling nicely the brief role of the boy Scrooge). Joseph Holmes and Lisa Hensley show versatility in several roles, and d'Arquoia Connoris a sassy barrel of fun as the Ghost of Christmas Present.

A Queer Christmas makes conscious use of stereotypes toup date and unstraighten Dickens. It's a new story that seems familiar on several levels. But in how many Christmas plays do you hear someone say, "Fuck Kitty Carlisle!"?

A Queer Carol will run through Dec. 31 at New Conservatory Theatre Center. Tickets are $22-$34.
Call 861-8972 or go to www.nctcsf.org.