Alice and the Wonderful Tea Party
|
Akiki, Coombs, c. Dolinsky
Photo by Cydne Moore
|
By Joseph N. Feinstein
We took our nine year old grandchildren, Melissa and Josh, to the Santa Moncia Playhouse to see their current offering.They were there to serve as junior critics and assess the performance from a child's point of view.
The stalwart Santa Monica troupe has been together for over forty years and really know how to write interesting songs, sing them to perfection, and emote with just the right amount of overacting and falsetto voice to keep the toddlers and their parents coming back again and again for more. The Saturday matinee scored high points from both my assessment and my junior critics, for we both arrived at a solid "ten."
Chris DeCarlo and Evelyn Rudie are the Artistic Directors for the Playhouse and wrote and directed Alice. They have a penchant for intelligent and funny word play, lots of puns, matching metaphors, and repetitive verbiage in simple tunes to which youngsters can relate:
"brevity, levity, formality, cordiality, reality and royalty; uppity, cup o' tea; enormity, conformity..." all describing the many kinds of "tea" that can be found at a tea party.You get the idea!
Singing and spouting those words are Serena Dolinsky as Alice, Cydne Moore as the Queen of Hearts, John Waroff as The Mad Hatter, Rebecca Coombs as the Three of Hearts, and Celeste Akiki in several different roles - all effective! The costumes created by Cammy Truong and Ashley Hayes are vivid, colorful and help fantasy land come to life.
In one poignant scene, the Lady in Waiting tells of her father who never returned. She sings of the plight of waiting: "I was waiting for Godot; I was waiting for the clouds to roll by; I was waiting in the rain...I became a Wait Watcher!" It went over the twins' heads, but, joyfully, not mine! When castigated for not delivering the flowers the Queen needed, Alice reminds the Queen of some promises she made: "I promised you tea, I promised you cookies, but I never promised you a rose garden!" Once again, only the parents chuckled.
I and my junior critics left, sufficiently armored with enough rhyme schemes to last all year. Alice and her Tea Party was as "wonderful" as the title suggests. It plays until June 10. Take the tykes and venture forth.
Alice and the Wonderful Tea Party Santa Monica Playhouse 1211 Fourth Street
Santa Monica 90401 Tel. 310-394-9779, Ext. 2 Saturday and Sunday @ 12:30 p.m. & 3:00 p.m. $10.50 children; $12.50 adults
|
