The laugh-out-loud funny Inspecting Carol, by Dan Sullivan and The Seattle Repertory Company, premiered at Seattle Rep December 11, 1991. In this play-within-a-play, the Soapbox Playhouse, which founder Zorah Bloch (Amy Mills) has put her heart and soul into for 13 years, is in rehearal for their annual cash-cow production of A Christmas Carol. Zorah's managing Director, Kevin Emery (Chris Dover) breaks the news that the company is broke and the $30,000 grant from the NEA, which she's been counting on to keep the playhouse afloat, is being withheld due to a "significant artistic deficit" pending an imminent visit by their inspector.
Enter Wayne Wellacre (Lee Irving), a broke, out-of-work actor, for an audition. He is mistaken for the inspector, and not only is he hired as a company member but he is allowed to make significant re-writes to the script.
To increase her chances for funding Zorah has instituted a multi-cultural iniative and hired the playhouse's first black actor, Walter Parsons (Devon Jackson), who can't learn his lines -- any of them. Luther Beatty (Cayman Mitchell) is a large eleven-year old who "has been playing Tiny Tim two years too long" causing the actor playing his father in A Christmas Carol, Phil Hewlett (Paul Taylor) severe back problems from carrying him around.
Internecine warfare is rampant within the company as well as an allusion to a prior tyst between Zorah and Phil, and merry hi-jinks ensue, including props and scenery that malfunction at regular intervals (think Noises Off). Ultimately the real inspector, Betty Andrews (Lisa Anne Haram) shows up in time to witness this debacle transpire during a dress rehearsal.
While this production elicits non-stop laughter due to the exemplary talents and timing of Amy Mills, Paul Taylor, and T. A. Taylor (who looks and acts like a young Alan King), the production values are so shoddy they defy description, but I'll try. For starters, in an ironic twist of life imitating art, director Cliff Stephens has done his own re-writes and added two characters to the cast (actual crew members of The Labyrinth Theater) who have no lines and serve no purpose. In the role of the Stage Manager, M. J. McMann (Marian Zsohar), Stephens has cast an actress in a role 15-20 years younger than called for in the script. While her acting is quite good, she is way too young to exhibit the world-weariness and resignation required of the character.
To name a few of the godawful design elements of the show: No light dissolves to show the passage of time during The Soapbox's rehearsals of A Christmas Carol, indecipherable voice overs during the Soapbox's dress rehearsal viewed by the Inspector, Zorah, and Kevin; and the most unimaginative set I've ever seen -- anywhere.
Someday you should treat yourself to a performance of Inspecting Carol, but not this one.
