FAMILY : Storybook’s ‘Jack’ Gets Kids In on the Act

When the giant in a recent performance of Storybook Theatre’s musical “Jack and the Beanstalk” stopped at “Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman,” it wasn’t surprising that several young audience members felt free to fill in the rest: “Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.”

Audience participation is what the Theater West-based Storybook Theatre is all about. Benign aisle chases, joking asides, direct appeals to the audience for help and on-stage volunteers and musical numbers that, while not particularly memorable, are generally a cut above the usual fare, have earned the company a faithful following among school groups and parents of young children.

“Jack and the Beanstalk,” by Lloyd J. Schwartz (producer of “The Brady Bunch Movie”), with music by prolific TV composer Ben Lanzarone, is the latest in the company’s formulaic, plain-and-simple musicals based on classic fairy tales, with any scary bits tamed for preschool- and early elementary school-age children.

Directed by Barbara Mallory Schwartz, audience participation ranges from shouted out instructions for the benefit of certain seemingly obtuse characters, to intrepid audience volunteers playing Jack’s cow, and pretending to be Jack in order fool the giant.

The adult cast--Tracy Carter, Gene Pack, Mary Van Arsdel and Ron Morgan--comfortably interacts with the audience and keeps the show from falling victim to the more precociously outspoken audience members. The show’s one slow ballad, “I Want to Tell Him I Love Him,” sung by Jack’s mother (Van Arsdel), staves off sloppiness with a wink-and-grin delivery.

Rosetta Gitlin did the energetic choreography; the unremarkable, limited set was designed by Steve Corvelo.

* “Jack and the Beanstalk,” Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Saturdays at 1 p.m. through June. $7; (818) 761-2203.

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Dino-Story: Artist/children’s author William Joyce, whose whimsical genius in such unusual offerings as “Dinosaur Bob” and “Nicholas Cricket” appeals to all ages, will be on hand at Storyopolis on Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m., as will the new expanded version of Joyce’s “Dinosaur Bob” bestseller and an exhibit of his book and film art, New Yorker magazine covers, hand-painted Easter eggs and his Saks Fifth Avenue window displays.

* Storyopolis, 116 N. Robertson Blvd., Plaza A, (310) 358-2500.

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Students Onstage: Catch an evening of dance, drama, instrumental and vocal jazz and classical music at the professionally produced “Second Annual Youth at the Greek Festival,” hosted by Pat Boone tonight at 8 at the Greek Theatre in Hollywood.

* Tickets: $6. Reservations: (213) 480-3232.