FAMILY THEATER REVIEW : A Musical ‘3 Musketeers’

Disney’s “all for one, one for all” blockbuster isn’t the only new version of Alexandre Dumas’ sword epic around: “The Three Musketeers” are kicking up their heels in Little Broadway Productions’ rollicking musical adaptation of the classic. It’s a hoot for the elementary school set and has comic touches enough to amuse parents, too.

The show, which played Orange Coast College over the weekend, wraps up a three-month tour of Southland schools and community theaters at Cal State Northridge on Saturday and Sunday.

Although the story about young D’Artagnan (Patrick Schuster) and Musketeers Aramis (Vajdon Sohaili), Porthos (Eddie Crew) and Athos (Joel D. Martin) and royal intrigue in 17th-Century France is as abridged here as in the movie, events manage to stay truer to the original.

And, despite its modest budget, this unpretentious show for first- to eighth-graders, adapted by Val Dunlap and smoothly paced by director Marilyn Weitz, is eye-pleasing and professional. It features versatile, attractive set pieces (designed by Wanda Warburton with Ernie Gilbert), appealing costumes (by Weitz), pleasant music and occasionally hilarious lyrics by Mark Monarch.

Much clashing swordplay, carefully choreographed by Eric Margerum, notable for its vigor if not technique, provides the satisfying swashbuckling element for action-hungry young patrons.

The rest of the deft cast includes Cathy Gilbert, Donna Getzinger, Di Bubano and Brian Hall.

* “The Three Musketeers,” Cal State Northridge, Campus Theatre, 18111 Nordhoff St., Saturday - Sunday 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., $8; (818) 885-3093, (213) 480-3232 . 1 hour, 15 minutes.