“MY SON PINOCCHIO: GEPPETTO’S MUSICAL TALE,” through Sept. 8, Hale Centre Theatre’s Jewel Box Stage, 9900 S. Monroe St., Sandy (801-984-9000 or hct.org); running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes (one intermission)
SANDY — For any parent who enjoys a night out at the theater and hopes their children will catch the cultural bug, Hale Centre Theatre’s current production of “My Son Pinocchio: Geppetto’s Musical Tale” is a great place to start.
With plenty of fourth-wall breaking antics, a short running time, a visual feast in the form of costumes and sets and a familiar storyline, “My Son Pinocchio” is an easy-to-digest theatrical experience suited for young audiences that parents can also enjoy.
“My Son Pinocchio” gives Disney's 1940 film "Pinocchio" a stage adaptation with a spin, telling the story of the wooden puppet and his growing nose from Geppetto's perspective. Familiar tunes are still there — think “When You Wish Upon a Star” and “I've Got No Strings” — supplemented by additional songs with music and lyrics from “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz, but the switch in perspective brings deeper meaning to the story’s themes.
The fourth wall is shattered from the show’s first moments as four Fairies in Training make their way down the aisles, excitedly talking over each other before asking kids in the audience to help them raise the stage’s curtain with their wands. The magic continues as the Blue Fairy enters in a skirt bedazzled with bright blue lights that stands at least 10 feet tall and evokes a Disneyland’s Main Street Electrical Parade aesthetic.
The Blue Fairy — played by a single-cast Raina Larkin Thorne — exudes an overconfident demeanor with a bit of vanity and a dose of fake sweetness as she extols her many great deeds as a fairy, including her recent success in granting Geppetto’s wish. Right in the middle of her bragging, Geppetto (played single-cast by Mark Pulham) wanders in to bluntly tell the Blue Fairy that she has messed up on granting his wish. This back-and-forth banter between the two characters continues through the rest of the show as each seeks to prove the other is in the wrong. The dynamic between the two actors makes it easy to see why both were single-cast for the show’s two-month run.
As a toymaker, Geppetto sees a constant stream of families coming in and out of his shop and laments when parents treat their children as if they are pests — “Why is it the ones who see children as bothers / Are the ones who get to be fathers?” — and adamantly asserts he would not act like that if he were a father.
But when the Blue Fairy grants Geppetto's wish to be a father and brings his wooden puppet Pinocchio — played Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday by Coleman Higbee — to life, Geppetto soon learns parenting isn’t what he thought it would be.
Coleman’s Pinocchio is nothing short of adorable as he eagerly learns to navigate his new world, wandering away in curiosity when Geppetto tries to teach him a song, asking question after question and telling lies that cause his nose to grow (unfortunately, however, Pinocchio’s nose malfunctioned throughout the performance on which this review is based). When Pinocchio doesn’t conform to Geppetto’s idea of a perfect child, the toymaker complains to the Blue Fairy, a conversation Pinocchio overhears and makes him decide to run away.
The rest of the show follows Geppetto as he tries to track Pinocchio down, with stops at puppeteer Stromboli’s show; Idyllia, where Geppetto runs into Professore Buonragazzo and his "perfect child" machine; Pleasure Island, where, like the film, little boys are turned into donkeys; and, of course, the inside of the whale.
With a one-hour-and-40-minute running time, including one intermission, “My Son Pinocchio” maintains a clipping pace throughout, which makes the show a bit thin on character and relationship development but does make it easy for young children to sit through.
The costumes and props are amusing visuals and create a fun atmosphere. Joy Zhou’s costume designs are at times bright, Italian folk-inspired ensembles with intricately embroidered details and at times black-and-white with bold geometric shapes, and the props, especially in Geppetto’s toyshop, have a beautiful, handcrafted quality about them. Perhaps the most fun “props” of the night, however, were Stromboli’s marionettes, played with convincingly limp movements by Emily Tessa Ebert and Abigail Budge (single-cast).
Yes, “My Son Pinocchio” is engaging to watch, but what perhaps most makes it a good introduction to theater for younger audiences is the blatant discussion of the story’s themes — the Blue Fairy out right invites her Fairies in Training and the audience to consider the moral of the story. This serves as a great lesson for children that theater can be more than just entertaining, and serves as a great reminder to parents to cherish and have patience with their little ones.
Content advisory: “My Son Pinocchio” is suitable for all audiences and Hale Centre Theatre allows children as young as 3 in the show. There is one instance when a character refers to a male donkey in a way that may be offensive to some audiences, but the moment is fleeting.
Correction: A previous version incorrectly stated Mila Belle Howells played one of the marionettes. Abigail Budge played the left marionette while Howells played the role of Girl 1/Talia.