Oedipus for Kids: The Musical
Oedipus for Kids: The Musical
Book by Gil Varod and Kimberly Patterson
Lyrics by Gil Varod
Muisc & additional Material by Robert J. Saferstein
Directs by Tara Corless
Starring Drew McCalmon, Candy Heller, and Justin Scarlat
Renegade Theatre at the Breakthrough Theatre
Winter Park, FL</strong>
“Wonderfully Inappropriate” is the best I can come up with after seeing this jaw dropping high concept low budget musical. Alistair (McCalmon) brings heavy drama to grade school audiences, his Uncle Tommy’s Cabin was big hit and now he’s exploring Oedipus with his Duck Dancers, (Corless and Marc Lingle) a sponsorship from an evil corporation and a failed marriage. You recalled Oedipus’s story – born to the king of Thebes, Oedipus got a bad tarot readings and is abandoned in the woods. Raised by a shepherd, he limps away from home, kills his baklava loving father, porks his mom, and brings the plague to Thebes. While he ends up blinded in a pool of coffee creamer, he really meant well. In real life Alistair’s wife Catalina (Heller) quits the company, takes vengeance on his infidelity, and has that embarrassing little plus sign turn pink. That’s one thing about classic Greek theater: it still speaks to the range of human screw ups that we still pull off today.
While the front stage material is funny and just barely acceptable to school boards across the Midwest, the back stage stuff is funny beyond belief. There’s nothing like the desperation of starving artists to laugh at as Alistair attempt to engross without traumatizing his audience. McCalmon is as uptight as Felix Unger at a tax audit while Heller is the earthy goddess type – she warns her ex “My uterus is not a game boy!” but it does accept quarters. Innocent and rather slow Evan (Scarlat) is leaning the theatrical ropes and while he may have gone to the Mentos School of Acting he has a one Freshmaker in his back pocket – Daddy’s Money. The children may not get the Bob Fosse interpretation of the plague, but there are ducks, and sometimes they bend waaaayy over to pick up dropped props. That ought to keep the little bastards till next week.
As the relentless positive action of children’s theater works hard to hook short attentions spans, this show encourages the audience to quack when it needs to gloss over a rough plot point. There’s plenty of sugar and flashing lights and cheap toys to entertain us, and if you have flexible legs and current yoga cert you can sit on a lily pad in the very front row. Yeah, yeah, yeah don’t bring any actual children, but once inside, feel free to talk out of turn, throw things at the stage, and laugh till you can’t feel your cell phone vibrate. This is one of those great back stage comedies that theater people will emphasize with and the unenlightened will ask “Can I book this show from my Charter School?”
For more information on Renegade Theater, please visit www.renegadetheaterorlando.org
