FOR THE KIDS : Local Show Gives New Spin to ‘Aladdin’ : Staging by well-known children’s theater group is a clever rendition of the famed tale done in the Chinese tradition.

If you take your family to see the stage production of “Aladdin,” don’t expect the Disney version with a genie who hams it up as hysterically as Robin Williams does in the movie.

In fact, this performance, coming to Ventura on Friday night, is the Chinese version of the famous story from “The Arabian Nights.” It’s staged in traditional Chinese theater style.

It’s still a musical, although you won’t recognize any of the tunes. None of them is from the Disney movie. And it’s still funny.

“The genie is pretty much a character,” said Thomas Siniscalco, producer of the show, performed by the Prince Street Players, a theater group based in Readington, N. J. “He’s not as funny as Robin Williams, but he’s close.”

The show, on the road since October, will be presented at 7 p.m. at Buena High School’s auditorium, 5670 Telegraph Road. Reserve tickets are $10 for kids, $12 for adults, $1 more at the door.

Now, for a little background. The story “Aladdin” is one of many told by the young woman Scheherazade to the sultan in the city of Baghdad around 850 B. C., according to the theater group. Because the difficult sultan had threatened to kill her if she didn’t entertain him, she told him a tale each night. The collection of stories came to be known as “A Thousand and One Nights.”

The author of the stories isn’t known. They were written in Arabic, but the stories are set in Asia, India and China. This rendition of “Aladdin” takes place in China and is more in keeping with the original, Siniscalco said, than the movie, which was set in Arabia.

In the stage show, the boy Aladdin is poor, yet he’s a free spirit who does little to support himself and his widowed mother, despite criticism from others. One day, he is flying his kite and a gust of wind carries him over a wall into the emperor’s garden. There, he meets the beautiful princess.

The two are smitten with each other, but the princess is under an ultimatum to marry the richest man in China. Now Aladdin longs to be rich. Enter a magician who leads the boy to a cave and a special lamp harboring the genie who helps him in his quest.

The Chinese theater style used for the production is unusual. (Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” comes close to it.) The sets are simple, using such objects as ladders, sawhorses or chairs to represent other things. An onstage narrator talks to the audience and even plays several parts, including a tree. The actors themselves prepare the set for each scene, then become characters in the scene.

Audience members must use their imaginations. A 16-foot rolling ladder, draped in material, becomes at various times a mountain, throne or the entrance to a cave. Giant panels of rippling blue silk become clouds as the genie flies Aladdin. Some scenery is traditional, and the costumes are colorfully embroidered.

At times, the cast, numbering 10, asks the audience to participate in the drama by answering yes or no questions or by thinking of something. The show, presented by the Ventura Children’s Festival, lasts about one hour and is recommended for elementary-age kids and older.

The Prince Street Players have been around since 1965, having performed children’s productions on Broadway, at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and even a run last year in Japan with their rendition of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”

Details

* WHAT: “Aladdin,” a stage production.

* WHEN: Friday, 7 p.m.

* WHERE: Buena High School auditorium, 5670 Telegraph Road, Ventura.

* COST: Advance tickets are $10 for kids, $12 for adults, $1 more at the door. Tickets available at Kideos in Ventura, Serendipity Toys in Ojai; to charge by phone, call 650-5900.