CHILDREN’S THEATER REVIEW : SCR Show Is Comfortable With Its ‘Self’

Have a problem with your self-image? Does everyone else have the answers and you’re out in the cold? Don’t worry, there’s comfort at hand.

“The Right Self,” South Coast Repertory’s 1992 Educational Touring Production, directed by John-David Keller and playing Saturday on the theater’s Mainstage, contains one of the most common themes in children’s theater: self-esteem.

A snappy restaging of writer-lyricist Jerry Patch’s comic 1985 musical for younger school-age children, with music by Diane King Vann, the show offers good-humored understanding and common sense to ease a growing kid’s everyday anxieties.

At Camp I Wanna Persona, three insecure young people are targeted for a lesson in life: nerdy Will (Craig George) who wants friends, jock Rocky (Felipe Galvez) who secretly fears failure, and Karen (Myrona DeLaney), who feels she can’t do anything right.

The trio learn self-respect with the help of a mysterious camp counselor (Laurie Woolerly), who changes into Miss Ann Thrope, who represents every kid camper’s nightmare. They’re helped along in mildly satiric fantasy sequences including Karen’s “Wet My Lips National Rock Tour,” Rocky’s encounter with someone bigger and meaner than he is and Will’s outer-space adventure.

There’s nothing heavyweight here, but all the elements of the play work smoothly together, from the professional staging and adult cast to the upbeat music and clever lyrics, Linda Kostalik’s choreography and Dwight Richard Odle’s clever portable set, constructed like a pop-up storybook.

The show ordinarily tours schools, but, in addition to Saturday’s Mainstage production, an abbreviated version of the show will be open to the general public at the Performing Arts Center on May 2 as part of the Imagination Celebration.

“The Right Self” plays at 11 a.m. Saturday at South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $5. (714) 957-4033. Running time: 45 minutes.