FAMILY : In the Musical ‘King Lear,’ They All Get a Second Chance

Purists read no further. “King Lear,” Shakespeare’s most passionate tragedy of familial betrayal, deceit, violence and deathbed redemption, has been turned into a children’s musical. Well, sort of.

“The Sad Tale of King Leerio,” at the Stella Adler Theatre, bears a distant resemblance to the original, but the subtitle, “Everyone Deserves a Second Chance,” clues you into playwright/lyricist/director Jordan Charney’s remarkably upbeat take on the classic.

In Charney’s version--which uses only a few lines here and there from the original--King Leerio’s intent to divide his kingdom according to which of his three daughters can prove she loves him the most, is simply a joke that backfires when his youngest, Princess Gumdrop (Mariah Shaw), won’t play along.

The king (Don McGovern) goes into a whiny snit and banishes Gumdrop, whereupon one of her suitors, Duke Grabbitt (Jeff Markey), deserts her and the other, Duke Steferado, (Chris Cox) professes his love.

Wealth in hand, greedy Princess Sellyfish (Holly Rockwell) and Princess Mee-anie (Maeve Odum) want nothing more to do with their father, while Lord Robba (William Campbell) and Lord Lyre (Josh Schrieber), plot with Grabbitt to steal their intendeds’ inheritance.

Chickenfeed, the King’s fool (played by guitar-strumming Bill Robens, wearing a life-size rubber chicken carcass on his head), is the show’s musical narrator (Richard Demone wrote the music).

In the end, and after McGovern’s anemic, truncated version of the king’s “blow, winds and crack your cheeks” mad scene, peace and harmony prevail as the characters give each other a “second chance” to behave themselves.

The musical’s small scope has a workshop feel to it that is underscored by less-than-inspired lyrics--”Father don’t weep; I know you tried, but you were asleep”--but the polished adult professional cast, save for McGovern who seems uneasy in the lead role, carries the mild comedy off better than might be expected.

* “The Sad Tale of King Leerio” at Stella Adler Academy’s Studio Theatre in Hollywood, Saturdays at 2:30 p.m., indefinitely. $7-$10; (213) 782-0596. Runs 1 hour.