A DEFANGED ‘LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD’

It’s corny, it’s musically unmemorable, but “Little Red Riding Hood” at Theatre West still has a lot to offer. Good-natured and bouncy, the Storybook Theatre of Los Angeles presentation is a romp for the preschool set.

Lloyd J. Schwartz’s version of the familiar tale features a piano-playing Granny (Sheila Shaw, in housecoat and hairnet), a self-satisfied hero (Joe Nassi) and a comic Wolf (Jack Kutcher in backwoods attire, fuzzy ears emerging from stovepipe hat).

Throughout, young audience members are reassured that what they are watching is make-believe.

Barbara Mallory, who narrates the story, explains that she is the Story Teller and, then, “when I put this scarf on, I’m Little Red Riding Hood’s mother.”

As is common--and not always successful--in so much of children’s theater, props are few and sets are minimal. Imagination is supposed to fill in the details.

Above all, however, this is a participatory event, and that takes precedence, even when eager participation briefly drowns out the dialogue on stage.

Mallory, mild and petite, never seems to get the color in the title right. Enthusiastic shouts of “Red!” from the audience ring out each time she forgets.

Children are invited on stage to play trees in the forest and need little encouragement to warn the other actors when the Wolf is up to his tricks.

Pointing out the obvious to the likable actors is a highlight of the show. “Don’t open the door, Granny! It’s the Wolf!”

Nassi, a Dudley Do-Right sort of hero with cardboard ax in hand, chases the Wolf offstage. “Not a very happy ending,” the Wolf tells the audience, “but, better than what usually happens to me.”

Great effort has been made to take the frightening elements out of the story. Kutcher’s Wolf, a cartoon villain, is mischievous and greedy, not evil.

At least one toddler in Saturday’s audience wasn’t entirely convinced, however, saying, “That wolf is going to get me.”

Her mother’s equable response was the sort of reassurance only a parent can supply:

“No, he won’t, or Daddy will pound his ears.”

The show’s last performances at 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West are Saturday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Information: (213) 851-4839.