 Jack can barely get started narrating his famous beanstalk
tale before getting interrupted by other characters intent on turning our
immortal fairy tales on their heads. In Kent Stephens’s musical adaptation of
Jon Scieszka’s Caldecott-winning book, the devious Fox E. Loxy takes over as
director of the show, allowing the Giant to begin dictating affairs from above,
and threatening to massacre several fairy tales in various ways – everything
from turning Goldilocks into a brunette to changing the outcome so that
everything doesn’t end up happily ever after. As Fox E. Loxy reasons, fairy
tales are pretty stories about life. And does life have a happy ending?
Becky Cherlin Baird directs this fun little trip
through fractured fairy tales filled with characters we all know. Or thought we
knew. The other director is played by Sierra Kindig as the delightfully
sinister Fox E. Loxy who truly relishes the role as the spoiler, stealing the
spotlight away from our more trusted and far more amiable narrator Jack (Ryan
Hastings-Echo) who begins the show a few feet up above the stage in his
beanstalk. Suddenly the Giant (a voiceover by Carmen Quinones) starts
dictating terms, and the rest of the recognizable cast can only nervously await
their new fates.
Juliette Garay delivers one of the most amusing
performances as a re-engineered Cinderella – a beautiful, calm, patient, and
intelligent young woman who drives Fox crazy as a stickler for details and with
her remarkable vocabulary. This is in terrific contrast to her mean, ugly, and
far-less eloquent Wicked Stepmother (Celia Tedde) and her two ditzy and
obnoxious daughters (Lindsey Grant and Isabella Leung). Not even
the unexpected arrival of a determined, but ultimately frustrated,
Rumplestiltskin (Isabelle Pickering) can rattle this Cinderella who,
with a lovely voice, is always eager to sing solos about the benefits of
anti-bacterial soap.
Soon you’ll also be hearing Frog (Max Oilman-Williams)
and Turtle (Elliot Rappaport) give a charismatic little ditty about the
Ugly Duckling (Caroline Cecena) who grows up to be…an Ugly Duck. The
hilarious Hallie Bodenstab lands a laugh every time she struts out on
stage as the melodramatic, “sky is falling” Little Red Hen with a big southern
accent and great personality. Emma Wineman is a princess disgusted by
kissing a frog. And the show also features a charming ensemble of
Storybook Kids who sing Gary Rue’s short, fun, and outrageous songs.
And, finally, there’s the title story of our show. An
Old Woman (Kaydon Schanberger) has become a football widow to her
sports- and TV-obsessed husband (Jordan Woods) who wears his Green Bay
Packers cheesehead hat. But instead of baking up a Gingerbread Man to keep her
company, she decides to make a Stinky Cheese Man. Gaby Greenwald is a
hit as the super-cute, singing and dancing Stinky Cheese Man who keeps running
away, taunting people with the cry, “You can’t catch me, I’m the Stinky Cheese
Man.” Though, of course, unlike the Gingerbread Man, nobody is interested
enough to give chase after poor Stinky Cheese. Will Fox E. Loxy have the
stomach to eat him? Would you???
Performs March 23 - April 1, 2007
Rob Hopper
National Youth Theatre
~ Cast ~
 Stinky Cheese Man: Gaby Greenwald
Cinderella: Juliette Garay
Wicked Stepmother: Celia Tedde
Ugly Stepsister: Lindsey Grant
Ugly Stepsister: Isabella Leung
Princess/Ugly Duck Dancer/Storybook Kid: Emma Wineman
Fox E. Loxy: Sierra Kindig
Jack: Ryan Hastings-Echo
Little Red Hen: Hallie Bodenstab
Rumplestiltskin: Isabelle Pickering
Ugly Duckling/Storybook Kid: Caroline Cecena
Old Man: Jordan Woods
Old Woman: Kaydon Schanberger
Frog: Max Oilman-Williams
Turtle: Elliot Rappaport
Ugly Duck Dancer/Storybook Kid: Elena Eroshkin
Storybook Kid: Casey Purlia Johnson
Storybook Kid/Voice of the Giant: Carmen Quinones
Director: Becky Cherlin Baird
Music Director: Robin Whitehouse
Costume Design: Cynthia Carvajal
Technical Director/Set Design/Lighting Design: Cynthia Bloodgood
Stage Manager: Kayla McCulley
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