‘Dream Street’ Drives Home Its Message With Music

A girl in a wheelchair lives her dream--to find a place where wheels “aren’t special”--in “Dream Street,” a winning musical for children at the West End Playhouse in Van Nuys.

A mix of snappy songs, fantasy and good humor presented by the Max’s Playhouse troupe, this “message musical” shines as sheer entertainment; lessons of self-esteem and empathy are subtler than you might think. At the end of the production and Lucy Hagan’s lead performance in it, a wheelchair is seen as a way to get around, not a way to define someone.

Hagan plays Max, a young girl who’s tired of the funny looks people throw her way because of her wheelchair. She’s wafted away to a fantasy land of talking cars by a jovial yellow cab (Jennifer Echols), and set on the path to Dream Street. Max’s traveling companion is Buck (R. J. Wagner), a brand-new truck chagrined over his standard model status, who yearns for a racing stripe.

What starts out as an Ozian odyssey quickly establishes its own identity. The pair encounter a luxury car (Monica McMurtry) having marital problems with her subcompact husband, Sparky (Guy Beck), a depressed ice cream truck and a confused tow truck who want to be fire engines (McMurtry and Beck again) and a yuppie mobile with a car phone (Echols).

Conflict comes in the form of a demented convertible named Ragtop (Terry Ray) who plots to steal Buck’s white walls and dreads rainy days--when his top goes up, his nerdy alter ego Putt-Putt takes over.

Ray, who goes over the top at times, gets huge laughs doing an outrageous sort of Carol Channing/John Ritter/Dana Carvey Church Lady combo.

Director Anamarie Garcia holds it all together with a sure hand, the likable adult cast is fairly polished and does justice to Terry Hastings’ tuneful songs, both comic and wistful, and Hagan and her “wheels” are smoothly integrated into Randy Haege’s choreography. Jim Houle’s witty dialogue works on both a child and adult level.

Curt Maranto’s road map set design is brightly colored but simple; the real eye appeal is found in the outstanding professional costume design by Houle and Paula Higgins that delights at every turn.

“Dream Street,” West End Playhouse, 7446 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys, Sunday at 1 and 3 p.m., next Saturday, 1 and 3 p.m., June 6-7, 1 p.m. $5; (818) 506-0685.

Making Choices: Teen mothers use their own experiences to voice options and give hope to other young women in “Teenage Ninja Mothers,” a theater work created as part of the Mark Taper Forum’s Other Voices Project, playing next Saturday at 4 p.m. at Barnsdall Park’s Gallery Theatre.

With music by composer Michael Silversher and choreography by Ruby Millsap, the comic scenes, dances, songs and personal stories were developed in a drama workshop held by the Teen Parenting and Child Care Program at the Business Industry School. Taper artist-in-residence Victoria Ann-Lewis is the guiding force behind the program.

“The stories are remarkable,” Ann-Lewis said. “A lot of the girls have turned their lives around 180 degrees, taking control in ways that people from more privileged backgrounds might not have found the strength to do.”

The work, which tours schools and youth facilities, took on a special resonance after the recent devastation in Los Angeles. Some of the young Latinas and African-American women, ages 15 to 19, face eviction and heightened domestic stress because they or their husbands or boyfriends lost jobs when their places of employment were destroyed.

“I think the play has been a centering thing in the midst of all the unrest,” Ann-Lewis said. “They are telling their stories for all the young women whose stories haven’t been told. In a sense it’s something that all women experience; all women have to learn to take control of their lives, stand up to abuse and demand to be treated as a human being.”

Tickets are $12 for adults, $5 for teens. Information: (213) 741-8879.