CHILDREN’S THEATER REVIEW : Audience Reaps Grimm Rewards in ‘Frog Prince’ : Laguna Playhouse Youth troupe’s delightful improvisational production of the classic tale delivers its lesson loud and clear.

In a scant 90 minutes, Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre drives home some of the points kids have spent years trying to get through their parents’ thick skulls.

Point One: Anything that starts off by making a huge noise can’t be all bad. Point Two: If it’s worth saying once, it’s worth repeating. Often. Point Three: You don’t have to break the piggy bank to have a good time.

Presented by a six-member ensemble whose ages range from 15 to early 30s, “Tales” lets audiences choose one of two classic Grimm tales: “The Frog Prince” or “Rapunzel.” Both have been adapted with a light touch by Youth Theatre artistic director Joe Lauderdale and Christel Grissmer, a member of the company’s teaching staff. The production opens the company’s 1993-94 family season and continues through Sept. 19 at the Moulton Theatre.

“Tales” takes a tip from the traveling commedia dell’arte troupes of 16th- and 17th-Century Italy in that it features an ensemble cast--the mythical Kaleidoscope Kompany--enlivening stock characters and plots with improvisational twists.

Although Lauderdale said most of the improvisation took place in the rehearsal room during the show’s development and was ultimately incorporated into the scripts (in their program notes, Lauderdale and Grissmer refer to the plays as works-in-progress and invite audience members’ input with the goal of creating a final, publishable script), Friday’s performance still crackled with a come-what-may spirit that easily involved kids and adults in the audience.

A traffic snarl on Laguna Canyon Road caused some audience members, including me, to miss the first few minutes of the show, during which the cast offers semi-improvised introductions and a quickie commedia primer.

This turned out to be a case of life-imitates-art-imitates-life: In the script, the ensemble also has been delayed by traffic in Laguna Canyon, leaving the actors to rush around madly to prepare for the show. (You may opt to leave for the theater a few minutes early to avoid this possibility yourself.)

All this fuss has so rattled the actors that they can’t decide which of the two stories in their repertoire to stage. They finally put it to members of the audience, who vote for their favorite by applauding, hooting, hollering, etc. (see Point One).

The winner on Friday, by several decibels, was “The Frog Prince,” and after a few set pieces were shoved into place, a hat and cape or two thrown on, the play was ready to begin.

That is, it would begin as soon as somebody gave the hook to the overzealous director, who had launched into a perfectly miserable rendition of the “To be or not to be . . . “ soliloquy from “Hamlet.”

It’s the first of several points in the script in which the actors drop character to underscore the feeling of a play within a play, and while they add spice at the beginning and the end (especially when the actors must “improvise” a finale for the show), toward the middle they slow the pace and detract unnecessarily from the story.

The director is finally banished to a corner of the stage, where he spends most of the show providing sound effects and the occasional uninvited criticism. From then on, the “real” actors take over, spinning the tale of the spoiled princess whose warty tutor teaches her an important lesson in the value of friendship and keeping promises.

Lauderdale and Grissmer have targeted younger viewers by toning down or deleting some of the original story’s harsher elements and by throwing in several campy sight gags, including Caesar, a “vicious” stuffed dog on wheels.

Subtlety is not big here. If the king intones the play’s message once, (“you must honor the promises you made”), he does so half a dozen times.

Older kids and adults are acknowledged with a few snappy throwaway lines, (the peasant ultimately “offs” the aforementioned dog because “he upstaged me”), and the cast’s broad comedic style plays well to all ages.

At Friday’s performance, the audience responded with its best melodramatic manners, cheering and whooping it up whenever the action called for it.

Monica Ruyle is suitably mule-ish as the headstrong princess, and Jojo Abaoag is a nicely humbled prince-turned-frog. As the sweets-popping governess Geraldine (it’s “practically the only reasonable thing to do when you’re upset”), Nicole Parker plays it way over the top with a voice and mannerisms that borrow heavily from Monty Python.

Budget-wise, “Tales” is a children’s theater troupe’s dream. Tim Mueller’s minimal set (pieces double for “Rapunzel” and “Frog Prince”), and Lauderdale’s multipurpose costumes are bright, slightly cartoonish and cheap without looking amateurish.

“Tales” runs 90 minutes without an intermission. If you think that’s too long for your child, consider the response of one 5-year-old, who, thinking the end of the show was the intermission, turned to her mom and asked, “Do we get to see the other one now?”

* “Tales From the Brothers Grimm,” Moulton Theatre, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Friday at 7:30 p.m.. Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday performance is sold out. Ends Sept. 19. $6, children; $9, adults. Children under 4 are not admitted. (714) 494-8021. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

B. Aaron Cogan: Director

Jojo Abaoag: Frog Prince

Kerene Bernard: Esmerelda

J. Levi Knapp-Rustemeyer: Peasant/King

Nicole Parker: Geraldine

Monica Ruyle: Princess

A Laguna Playhouse Youth Theater production. Adapted by Joe Lauderdale and Christel Grissmer from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Directed by Christel Grissmer. Set: Tim Mueller. Lighting: R. Timothy Osborn. Costumes: Lauderdale.