Theater : Imagine the Fun With ‘Really Rosie’

On a gritty street in Brooklyn, with dilapidated brownstones and sour, shouting parents, a little girl with a big imagination makes magic happen. That’s the theme of “Really Rosie,” a touring production of the wildly inventive, vibrant children’s musical by Maurice Sendak and composer Carole King.

The Night Kitchen, the New York-based children’s theater company founded in 1990 by Sendak and fellow children’s author Arthur Yorinks, made a regrettably short Los Angeles debut with the show at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse over the weekend and will play just one more Southern California venue, Tuesday at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert.

Meet the kids of Avenue P: Rosie (Samaria Graham), the undisputed leader of the group, who galvanizes her friends by transforming the ordinary into fantasy movies in which she’s the star; Johnny (Tom Ford), a serious loner--”my father says we are not here to enjoy ourselves”; Kathy (Melinda Klump), whose dream role is Mrs. Dracula; Alligator (Drew Barr), Kathy’s accident-prone brother; Pierre (Steven Rattazzi), the “I don’t care” boy, and Chicken Soup (Jonathan Powers), Rosie’s despised little brother.

Graham’s full-throated vocals and Rattazzi’s top-notch comic timing are especially appealing.

Marx Brothers-style anarchy frequently reigns as the group, quick to quarrel and quick to make up, follows Rosie’s lead and acts out story songs and assigned roles as bit players in Rosie’s latest “movie” version of her life.

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Parents, meanwhile, are never seen, but only heard as disembodied condemnatory voices shouting “watch your brother or I’ll break your legs”-type threats from apartment windows.

This is Sendak’s world, from his distinctive set pieces and the witty bite in his dialogue and lyrics, to his multilayered, clear-eyed vision of a child’s reality, where laughter and fantasy are play, but also escape--from the humdrum and from everyday, spirit-crippling little cruelties.

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Under Sendak’s crisp direction, the adult cast of talented professionals perform with uncloying energy; King’s evocative music, performed live with bounce and subtlety under conductor-pianist James Val’s direction, is an irresistible match for Sendak’s uniquely shaped lyrics.

Highlights include just about every number, among them “Pierre,” where a stint inside a lion’s stomach is a sure cure for Pierre’s “I don’t care” attitude; the poignant “Very Far Away,” a place where each child has a good reason to wish to be; and “Chicken Soup With Rice,” an exciting, chorus line grand finale that ends with an unexpectedly tender moment.

Two others who deserve kudos for fine work: lighting designer Peter Kaczorowski and sound designer Nevin D. Steinberg.

If this is what the Night Kitchen is cooking up, next time around perhaps we’ll be offered more than a tantalizing taste.

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“Really Rosie,” McCallum Theatre, 73000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert, (619) 340-ARTS, (619) 220-TIXS. Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. $15-$25 . Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.