CHILDREN’S THEATER REVIEW : This ‘Mermaid’ Wins the Audience, Too : ‘The Mermaid and the Prince’ is the Peter Pan Players’ original variation on the classic Hans Christian Andersen story.

It takes more than a couple of flippers to trip up true love.

That, in a clamshell, is the premise behind “The Mermaid and the Prince,” the latest children’s theater offering from the Peter Pan Players of Laguna Hills at the Iglesia Park Community Room. This one-hour romp, based loosely on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” fairy tale, follows the adventures of a headstrong sea nymph who trades her fins for feet in a bid for a handsome prince.

A familiar story? But wait: Comparing this show to Disney’s popular animated film “The Little Mermaid” is like comparing crab cakes to lobster bisque.

Director-adapter Saul Siedman, 77, has spiced up the tale with an array of wisecracking fairy-tale characters that have little if anything to do with the story. There’s a cameo appearance by Dabnis the sailor (“that’s Sinbad spelled backward”), griping about his girl, Miss Muffet. Jack and Jill have a lovers’ spat. Vacationing sailors wait in vain for Cinderella, Red Riding Hood and other mythical dames to “meet them and greet them.”

Siedman, who has coordinated fashion shows and directed adult amateur theatricals, has given his characters some snappy doggerel to tickle the funny bones young and old. For example:

Nobody stands up Dabnis,

That’s me,

Because there are other fish in the sea.”

But back to the story. It seems that in the undersea world of the Sea King, all young mermaids reaching the age of 15 are allowed to swim to the surface to catch a glimpse of the land up above. That’s not good enough for Monica. She has found a golden statuette of a handsome prince (actually, it looks more like a portly Shriner), an omen that she is to find romance only on the old terra firma. She saves said prince from a shipwreck, and love-struck, trades her voice to the local witch for legs and feet, then sets out to catch her man. Assorted baddies notwithstanding, she wins his heart, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Rounded out with a little dancing, a little music (including a few selections from the Disney movie), and those guest stars and you have an afternoon of lighthearted fun for preschoolers on up.

“The Mermaid and the Prince” features 40 Orange County school children ages 5 through 13. Ten-year-old Monica Bromberg, a real beauty, makes a fetching mermaid, and Andrew Walford and Rianna Lehmkuhl are fine as the prince and the scheming Elmira. Angela Gage and Mesha Bouvion are delightfully nasty as the witch and her sidekick, Beelzebub. David Lehmkuhl and Amanda Davis, both 6, are real scene-stealers as the sparring Dabnis and Miss Muffet.

The Peter Pan Players were founded by Siedman in 1986, partly with money from the Orange County Department of Harbors, Beaches and Parks. The troupe presents one or two productions each year in the Iglesia Park Community Room. Any Orange County schoolchild may participate.

‘THE MERMAID AND THE PRINCE’

The Peter Pan Players production of Saul Siedman’s adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.” Directed by Saul Siedman. Set by Saul Siedman and Helen Danielson. Costumes by Piper Walsh and Jenna Bouvion. Choreography by Leslie Brittle, Nancy Boos, Michele Danielson and Gloria Maloney. Lighting by Jonathan Bromberg. Performances Saturday at 1 and 4 p.m. at the Iglesia Park Community Room, 24671 Via Iglesia, Laguna Hills. (There will also be a public performance May 20 at 2 p.m. at Leisure World Clubhouse No. 5, near Gate 9 off Calle Corta.) Tickets: 50 cents for children, $1 for adults. Information: (714) 830-8318.