Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol is a theatrical riff on the seasonal favorite Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.
Our production at The Arsht Center in Miami has garnered some very generous reviews. Tickets here.
I use the plural “our” because even though I am the lone actor in the show, there is no way I could have done this by myself – the creative team of designers, stage managers, the director, producer, and a special shout out to Alex Alvarez who has played a coach/personal trainer type role – to say nothing of the resident staff at The Arsht – yes, it takes a village to put on a play.
A while ago I posted a cautionary tale about reading reviews of shows one is appearing in while the show is still playing – if you missed it you can see it here
Maybe this is a policy I can now revise, after all it’s been nearly 40 years since the challenging event outlined in the previous post.
But on the other hand the great danger when reading praise is that you start to believe it – I refer myself to the opening lines of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If” and I recommend that I learn it by heart.
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
You see, this is what happens when you do a solo with a lot of dialogue. You start talking to yourself even when offstage:
Colin: How about a cup of coffee, Colin?
Colin: Yes. What a good idea, Colin!
One is reminded of another piece of dialogue. This is taken from the late Anthony Sher’s book Year of the King in which Sher documents his preparation and performance of Richard III. Michael Caine saw a performance and went backstage to congratulate Sher afterwards.
Caine: And what about those reviews!?
Sher: Oh, I never read reviews.
Caine: Read ’em! You fuckin’ wrote ’em, didn’t you?
Full disclosure: each of the reviewers linked above is known to me personally, and I thank them here for their continued dedication to the cause of live theatre in an increasingly challenging environment.
