First, my friend and I were two of only four people in attendance.  D.D. Delaney's Concise Christmas Carol deserves to be seen by many people.  The second part of the tragedy is that 40th Street Stage doesn't seem to know what a treasure this show actually is, and have left it to languish on the half-struck Bat Boy set.  This has always been a problem at the ambitious but dangerously over-programmed theater, where quantity over quality seems to be the company mission statement.

Mr. Delaney himself is a wonderful performer, and manages to sell A Christmas Carol while functioning as narrator and single-handedly playing all of the parts:  from Ebeneezer Scrooge to Tiny Tim, from Old Fezziwig to The Ghost of Christmas Past.  And he does this remarkably.  Mr. Delaney is a strong character actor, and possesses a commanding stage presence.  He has a wonderful speaking voice, which he uses to tremendous effect in all of the characters.  Hearing his warm, grandfatherly narrator, I couldn't help but think of Jim Dale, a great character actor who is best known today as the voice of the Harry Potter audiobooks, and the narrator on ABC's wonderful television drama Pushing Daisies. 

Local people may best know Mr. Delaney as a writer and critic for Portfolio Weekly.  Because Mr. Delaney is a critic and not a frequent area performer, one may be surprised to find such a talent graciously (come on, he did a show for four people!) and gracefully performing this wonderful show.  Mr. Delaney shows a strong commitment to character choices, which are varied and always successful.  The show is never muddy as one might expect from one man playing all of the parts.  There is no confusion over who is speaking when.  Mr. Delaney makes it look very easy.  It isn't of course, and that is a great testament to the wonderful work he is doing. 

At one point, I became so engrossed in Mr. Delaney's performance that I began to feel the way I felt as a first-grader way back in those heady days of Nineteen Eighty-Four when Mrs. Cushenberry used to read stories to the class.  She was great with voices and narrative, and Mr. Delaney is similarly able to awaken that sleeping possibility in even the most jaded among us to be swept up in the magic of great storytelling.

My effusive excitement about this show surprises even me.

It is interesting to hear the narrative in Dickens's voice.  A Christmas Carol works better in his voice, as it is his story, and many adaptations lose the witty prose and narrative style that make Mr. Delaney's evening really succeed.  In this adaptation, which follows Dickens's novel only as an outline, Mr. Delaney has actually cut Dickens's text to an hour in length, and is able to communicate more about why the piece still resonates than any other adaptation in recent memory.

Mr. Delaney's cutting of the text pays lip service to the story we all have come to know and love, but includes (one realizes) very important moments which other adaptations leave out.  One compelling and very effective scene is one in which The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge a scene in which two of his servants carelessly loot through his things and steal from him after he is dead.  This not only gives weight to Scrooge's eventual transformation to a really nice man, but also endows the ghoulish spirit with a dark sense of humor. 

I can imagine many of you out there shaking your heads.  I know what you're thinking.  Listen to the critic get really excited about some tedious intellectual exercise.  I can see how you could think that.  But I can't stress enough how much A Concise Christmas Carol works better than many you are going to see.  When Mr. Delaney is peering out of the darkness, staring up at the frightening (and silent) Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, you see the beginning stages of a genuine transformation. 

Mr. Delaney's Scrooge is very human, and not the mythic archetype that many actors play in other versions.

Mr. Delaney and his hour-long adaptation are so wonderful that it becomes easy to forgive the (sometimes glaring) technical problems.  I have already discussed the Halloweenish atmosphere the inappropriate set brings about, but Mr. Delaney is performing under a lighting plot that is not designed for his show either, and so while a few of the lighting moments really work, most are bizarre, and there are many moments where he can't be seen.  But as the lights came down at the end of the evening, all four of us (four!) enthusiastically gave this hard toiling performer a standing ovation. 

This is the second year for Mr. Delaney's Consise Christmas Carol.  It premiered last year under the (now defunct) CityArts masthead at 40th Street Stage.  I did not see it then, although I believe the theatre at the time was better able to host it.  I am glad to see it returning, and hope that Mr. Delaney is able to make this a mainstay of area holiday traditions.  The show may be better served in a smaller and less congested space.  I long to see it in a more intimate and less Halloweenish environment, and I hope that 40th Street will give this treasure its due next year.  If not, I hope Mr. Delaney will seek out some friendlier space to mount this production. 

I know I said I would stop harping on the Bat Boy set, but since it was there, the unintended effect was that that show inadvertently became a character in this one.  It's a shame, because it made me realize the ultimate tragedy about local theatre.  D.D. Delaney's Concise Christmas Carol is a wonderful, mature, and intelligent show and it is neither being well-publicized or seen.  The Foppish Dandies and Co.'s production of Bat Boy:  The Musical (which, while largely praised, was the semi-professional equivalent of a high school play) was relentlessly publicized and very well-attended. One more reason I scratch my head and remember that there is no accounting for taste.  I only wish that the memory of a now closed high school play wasn't making a really professional effort look like one too. 

Three cheers for Mr. Delaney.  He is wonderful, and so is his show.  It is time for the theatre that's hosting him to realize that too.