WEAVERS SPIN ENGAGING ‘ANDROCLES’

“Androcles and the Lion,” a musical romp by the Weavers of Enchantment, rollicked across Cerritos College’s Burnight Theatre stage on Sunday, supplying its young audience with smiles and giggles.

This new work, based on Aurand Harris’s adaptation, is not the Weavers’ best. Not yet, anyway. There are rough edges--a life-size puppet is lifelessly manipulated, and none of the songs lives up to the crisp, jazzy opening number. (David Arnott wrote music and lyrics.)

But the Weavers are never bad, and “Androcles” has ample charm to overcome its faults, thanks to the skill of this professional troupe.

Lova Hyatt and Scott Meckling engage in humorous sighing as the young lovers Isabella and Lelio. Arnott’s crab-like old miser Pantalone is a study in meanness, while the Captain, a puffed-up buffoon played by Kelley Palmer, begs for comeuppance. Slapstick encounters between the two are absurd--and highlights of the show.

Sarah Grossman’s acrobatic Lion elicits sympathy as well as laughter when an injured paw transforms bravery into knee-knocking cowardice, and Bob Pederson’s simple, boyish Androcles is an appealing hero.

There were times on Sunday when the cast seemed almost too controlled, reluctant to go as far as the broad humor and silly sight gags that the show’s commedia dell’arte style demands. A little extra dash wouldn’t sacrifice the troupe’s characteristic finesse.

Performances by the Weavers for general audiences are all too infrequent, and future dates for “Androcles” are indefinite. The troupe usually tours public schools, as it has since it was formed at UCLA in 1982. (Arnott and Palmer are original members; others in the cast are long-term members.)

Under the artistic direction of Patricia Harter, the Weavers specialize in taking familiar folk tales from around the world and giving them a unique touch, composed of music, humor and generous imagination, creating a work as much original as borrowed.

Pianist Caroline Oblites contributed the accompaniment and Terry Anderson the colorful costumes, including the unusual commedia dell’arte masks. Lenny Levitt’s pop-eyed Roman emperor puppet deserves better handling.