LIVELY ‘AESOP’ RETURNING FOR SUMMER

Clip this review. “Aesop’s Fabulous Fable Factory,” Little Broadway Productions’ best children’s show to date, has closed at Los Angeles Valley College. Happily, the snappy, bright musical will reopen in July for a summer run.

Imagination is the hallmark here, from Pete Parkin’s set of scaffolding and ladders, to the sleek leotards and witty masks worn by the actors. Director Marilyn Weitz designed the costumes.

Written by Joseph Robinette, the show opens with young Monroe (Victoria Cockrell) inadvertently setting the machinery of a subterranean factory in motion, awakening its ancient proprietor, Aesop (Gregg Lawrence, in Greek toga). His fable-making machine is out of order, he tells her, missing a vital component: its moral-maker.

The other components, played by an appealing ensemble of actors, provide title, plot, characters, sentence structure, grammar and mood--and act out the stories.

When Aesop’s human machine creates the story of “The Country Mouse and the City Mouse,” Monroe sees the point of the tale and fills in the moral. Aesop and his machine eagerly continue their storytelling.

Thomas Tierney’s nifty score, Val Dunlap’s clever choreography and lots of humorous touches give the familiar fables extra zip.

The mouse (Cruz Aguinaga) in “The Lion and the Mouse” is a jive-talking be-bopper. Donna Babbin’s rabbit in “The Tortoise and the Hare” is a brassy smart aleck with a Brooklyn accent.

In “The Grasshopper and the Ant,” the Grasshopper (Natalie Nucci) is too lazy to go globe-trotting with her friend the Ant (Robyn Collier), until tantalizing post cards arrive from Paris, London and Hawaii. It’s too late, however; the ship has sailed, the plane has flown and the bus just left.

The professionalism of the production and cast keeps the show humming.

Cockrell’s Monroe is wistful and smart; Lawrence plays a hearty Aesop. The machine ensemble--David Kozen, Babbin, Aguinaga, Collier, Scott Robertson and Nucci--works smoothly, each actor providing just the right dash of individual style.

Mark Dunlap’s evocative lighting design is an added plus.

Performances will resume at Cerritos College in Norwalk and at Los Angeles Valley College, beginning July 12. (818) 509-0963.