"This is hilarious," my 8-year-old friend Logan said halfway through The Magic Mrs. Piggle Wiggle at Studio East. He and the children around him slapped their knees, shouted back and hooted as one adult and dozens of actors ages 8 to 16 brought to life the lively lady's cures for "heedless breakerosis," "interruptitus" and other childhood foibles.
The musical play is based on the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books written in the late 1940s and early 1950s by local author Betty MacDonald (The Egg and I). Mrs. P. lives in an upside-down house – poorly rendered in this production – and has a way of solving problems between parents and children. Sometimes she uses magic; sometimes she uses common sense with a touch of whimsy; always she's playfully affectionate towards the heedless children and sympathetic to the harried parents.
Most hilarious is the casting of the younger boys as the uptight fathers in their argyle sweaters. Often the back-talking, lazy, day-dreaming or clumsy "children" tower over their more diminutive befuddled parents in an inspired choice of casting. The old fashioned wigs and 50s clothes are just right.
The situations come right out of the books, which began as bedtime stories for MacDonald's children, nephews and nieces.
We loved the "back-talking cure" when Mrs. Piggle Wiggle lends her parrot to the family of a sassy girl who is always smart-mouthing her father. The parrot repeats back all of the girl's responses in a strident, irritated tone until the two get into a "I know you are and what am I?" argument that makes the girl realize how horrible she sounds.
The "bad table manners cure" features a pig that eats more daintily than the sloppy boy, and the "interruptitis cure" is undertaken with magic spray that stops the interrupter mid-word. One of our favorites was the last vignette when Mrs. Piggle Wiggle advises the parents of quarreling twin girls to dress up as babies and act out the continual bickering.
There's no preaching about bad habits as they are taken to their ridiculous conclusions. What if you never picked up your toys? Maybe they'd pile up so deeply that you couldn't even get out of your room to see the circus parade. What if you never thought before you ran around? Maybe you'd break 360 cups in a year. What if you never wanted to take a bath? Maybe the dirt would cake so thickly that radish seeds would sprout on your hands and face. If there's a gentle parenting tip it's this: Let the consequences of a child's bad habit teach the lesson.
In between the skits, there's some roasting of marshmallows over a chandelier on the floor, a circus parade and a hunt for pirate treasure hidden somewhere in the house. There's an inspired tap dance, a funny song about how the fathers had to hoe cabbages in the hot sun, and an underwater dance in which the parents of a daydreaming boy are invited to join in the fun of his fantasies. (Sometimes it's the parents, rather than the children, who need a "cure.")
All of the young actors enter into their roles with professionalism and, at the same time, joyful spontaneity. There are a few brilliant stand-outs: Taylor Johnston as Patsy Popover, the girl who hated baths, belting out the song "Gimme Dirt"; Cameron Hughes as the spirited tap-dancing Mr. Rogers; and Christian Obert, who is a big, muscled 16-year-old boy as the dainty, tea-drinking Mrs. Crankminor. Except for Obert and Deonn Hunt, who plays Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, the play is double-cast so that you may see a different, equally talented, group of actors on the night you attend. They've all come up through Studio East's acting classes.
This play is recommended for children 5 and older, and I think children up to age 10 would enjoy its humor. It is a little longer than two hours, with a 15-minute intermission, so be aware of your own child's ability to sit that long. Since the scenes change so often and so imaginatively, there shouldn't be a problem with anyone getting bored.
IF YOU GO
Where: Studio East Mainstage Theater, 11730 118th Ave. N.E., Kirkland.
When: Through June 23. Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 2:30 p.m.
Cost: Adults $14; students and seniors $12.
Coming up from Studio East:
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Les Miserables School Edition, 16th annual summer teen musical, July 19 through 28 at Kirkland Performance Center, 350 Kirkland Ave., Kirkland (auditions open).
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The Falcon and The Masque of Beauty and the Beast, two one-act plays in the Young Performers Series Aug. 9 and 10 at the Mainstage Theater.
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Theater performance camps and skills program for ages 4 through 18 in June, July and August at various locations in Kirkland.
Contact: 425-820-1800; www.studio-east.org.
Wenda Reed is a Bothell writer and theater-lover.
