Family : Ripe Humor of ‘Stinky Cheese Man’ Is a Gas

Don’t be alarmed if you hear honking coming from South Coast Repertory this weekend. It’s just the sound of Mother Goose, passing out.

Small wonder. In its current staging of “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales,” SCR’s Young Conservatory Players takes some of the world’s best-known fairy-tale and nursery-rhyme characters and turns them on their ears, in a snack-sized show that left audiences hooting (or was that honking?) with laughter.

The script by SCR literary manager John Glore, adapted from the book by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, is a faithful re-creation of the popular children’s book. The show, running through Sunday on SCR’s Second Stage, includes such tweaked tales as “The Really Ugly Duckling,” “Cinderumpelstilskin” and “The Boy Who Cried Cow Patty” (don’t ask). Each story features familiar characters and shreds of their well-known plots and soaks them in absurdity.

It’s familiar territory if you’ve read the book, but under director Craig Fleming (whose program notes prove he has a wicked sense of humor himself), “Stinky Cheese Man” gets even riper.

Fleming, an SCR conservatory instructor and former writer for Euro Disney, has allowed his 17-member cast of 10- to 17-year-olds a pretty free hand in their interpretations. What results is a privileged peek into what makes kids this age laugh out loud, from movie-based gags (keep an eye out for Forrest Gump) to the occasional PG-rated terminology.

But parents of younger children shouldn’t worry. At last Sunday’s performance, kids as young as 5 seemed completely tuned into the humor, and nary a parental blush was seen. In fact, the adults (including several who came without kids) seemed to be having a pretty fine time of it, too.

As an ensemble, Fleming’s cast, all of whom have taken two or more years of classes in SCR’s theater program for kids, works like a well-oiled machine. The actors handle as many as three different parts in the show’s nine sketches and take tongue-in-cheek jabs at such standard fairy-tale personas as the beautiful-but-dim princess, the ugly-but-dim giant, the clever and kind-hearted woodland creature and the classic shrewish stepmother.

Glore wraps the stories in a wacky variety-show format, emceed by Jack the Narrator, who is basically a cross between Don Rickles and a Keebler elf. Jonathan Ficcadenti is delightful in the part; he’s loony enough to be entertaining without stealing too much attention from the other characters. As in the book, Jack is heckled by the manic Little Red Hen, played with relish by Sarah Doyle.

Michael Cruz is one of the most versatile and talented young actors in the bunch. Whether he’s playing a bit part in “Chicken Licken” or the title roles in “The Really Ugly Duckling” and “The Stinky Cheese Man,” Cruz has a masterful knack for deadpan humor.

Lane Smith’s bizarre book illustrations, which won him a Caldecott Honor in 1992, were mostly collage-like scenes in deep earth tones that would be virtually impossible to re-create on stage. So set and costume designer Dwight Richard Odle takes a different tact.

The top of his two-level set is a vaudeville-style stage complete with footlights; the bottom, with doorways and a revolving wall, is a versatile backdrop to scenes played on the theater floor. Costumes are mostly off-the-rack fairy-tale wear spiced up with some unexpected, and in some cases downright weird, accessories and masks.

The only fly in the ointment is the music. Glore plays to popular tastes by slipping in a rap number and a purposefully bland rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” both performed by the full ensemble. They’re cute, but they clutter.

Garth Hemphill’s incidental music however, is delightfully Python-esque, especially an overture which sounds like a combination of kazoo music and kids giving some very wet “raspberries.” Donna Ruzika’s lighting design highlights the show’s self-mocking humor nicely.

* “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales,” South Coast Repertory Second Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 2, 4 and 7:30 p.m. Closes Sunday. $8 and $10. (714) 957-4033. Running time: 50 minutes. Presented by South Coast Repertory’s Young Conservatory Players. Based on the book by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. Adapted by John Glore. Directed by Craig Fleming. With Aaron Bertram, Tracy Clifton, Michael Cruz, Marianne Davis, Gretchen Dent, Sarah Doyle, Ian Driscoll, Jonathan Ficcadenti, Colleen Guilford, Mariah Henry, Alexander Knox, Shaina Lemmerman, Rachele Marsh, Erik Patterson, Kylee Rousselot, Meagan Sutton and Sarah Yip. Set and costume design: Dwight Richard Odle. Lighting: Donna Ruzika. Music and sound design: Garth Hemphill. Stage Manager: Rachel Ede.