CHILDREN’S THEATER REVIEW : SCR Show on Growth Pains Proves a Pleasure

Making choices and feeling self-worth are the themes of “When I Grow Up,” an inventive new musical from South Coast Repertory’s 1989 Educational Touring Production for older elementary school-age children and early teen-agers.

Usually given in schools, the show will be presented to the general public Sunday at the Long Beach Jewish Community Center.

A character called Friend (Keith Devaney) stays on the sidelines and guides the action of three sixth-grade loners who want to be accepted. Tina (Victoria Hoffman), the worrier, is anxious about going into junior high. Hugo (Michael Alvarez), a budding writer, is being pressured to join a gang. Melody (Martha J. New) wants to be cool like the “in” kids.

Friend’s advice--to go along with anything, just to belong--gets them in trouble, and some of it is scary, particularly Tina’s experimentation with drugs. In the process, three lessons are learned, although Hugo’s ability to deal with the gang’s threats when he decides not to join is somewhat cloudy.

Written by Jerry Patch, with music by Michael Silversher and directed by John-David Keller, the show may be just a little too ambitious. The issues it deals with are complex and can only be touched on superficially here.

And, although it is well acted, the adult actors lack the voices to deliver the show’s tuneful musical messages with sufficient impact.

The cast does put the humor over with style, however, and there’s plenty of it, from a demonstration of just what “cool” is to costume and set designer Dwight Richard Odle’s innovative way of extending the cast: Each actor “wears” two friends of the inanimate, stuffed and sewn variety. The effect is startling and worth more than one grin.

Throughout, Friend serves as devil’s advocate, helping the on-stage kids go wrong but also pulling the audience in by asking for advice and reactions. That may be the show’s biggest strength: how well it knows its target audience, and how intimately it involves that audience.

“When I Grow Up” will be presented Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the Long Beach Jewish Community Center, 3801 E. Willow St., Long Beach. Tickets: $3. Information: (213) 426-7601.