A rollicking time with fairy tales

Occidental Children’s Theater and Garry Marshall’s Falcon Theatre in Burbank offer contrasting styles with their summer productions. With “Goldilocks and the Three Tenors,” Occidental scores high marks for its imagination-celebrating romp at its once-a-year outdoor event in Eagle Rock. Meanwhile, the sleek, year-round professionalism of Falcon makes the most of less challenging, stereotypical “kiddie theater” fare in a comic “Rapunzel.”

Occidental’s talented company, it seems, is the kindred spirit of kids who’d rather play with the gift box than the gift, who earnestly feed their dolls with empty spoons, or turn a blanket-draped table into a growly lion’s lair.

In that vein, the hourlong “Goldilocks,” consisting of three world folk tales and the original spoof that gives the show its name, is downright epic. It has more than two dozen characters, a raging river, huts, temples, a working mill, a royal racetrack, mountains, forests and rice fields -- all courtesy of six actors, a couple of rugs on a sunny lawn, a few poles and some black swaths of material.

Dexterous and spirited, the actors use their bodies, poles and sashes to beguile the audience into entering their rambunctious world of pretend and using the mind’s eye to transform suggestion into reality.

That’s not Soren Bowie sitting on top of Joseph Chandler’s shoulders in “The Water Sprite and the Bear” from Germany; it’s a giant bear rearing up on its hind legs to frighten the pesky water sprite (Ursula McClelland), who has been tormenting the once-happy Miller (Joe Quadres).

Those aren’t three actors moving their bodies in various configurations in the Japanese tale, “The Three Amulets”; it’s a magic mountain of sand, growing bigger and bigger to keep a nasty mountain witch (Olivia Killingsworth) from catching up with a young apprentice priest (Meryl Ephraim).

Directed by Jamie Angell and choreographed by movement coach Nick Erickson, the show allows adults to lose themselves in the show’s inventive fun, too, while appreciating its clever execution and the pun-filled humor that drives it.

In “Xieng Mieng Follows the King Exactly,” a comic tale from Laos, a demanding, betel-nut-loving monarch (Chandler) rides his horse (McClelland and Quadres) to the racetrack, where Quadres calls the races, Santa Anita style (“Lady Godiva wins by a hair”; “Fancy Pants brings up the rear”). The king’s sly servant (Bowie), forced to follow behind on foot, picks up betel nuts and, well, other things, as he carries out his master’s instructions a little too literally.

The company’s finale, always a fairy tale spoof, is usually less disciplined than the three folk tale adaptations that precede it; and that’s the case here.

Bowie, McClelland and Chandler play touring operatic tenors; Quadres is a jealous singer who disguises himself as a fan named Goldilocks and sabotages Don Petito’s affirmation tapes, Don Flamenco’s costume and Don Gordito’s throat lozenges in order to regain the spotlight. The chase scene that ensues is sung (more or less) to the melody of “Figaro.” Though loosely executed and less comedically deft, the cast carries it off with the unflagging charm that has made this reliable company one of the Southland’s -- and the summer’s -- most entertaining children’s theater offerings.

At the Falcon, “Rapunzel,” Lori Marshall’s revamped fairy tale comedy with songs, is still overloaded with consumer references to local eateries, clothing labels, popular toys and flash-in-the-pan pop icons, but the production is a more assured proposition the second time around.

Directed by Joseph Leo Bwarie, the updated, more streamlined show features a solid cast of adult professionals -- Anna A. White as pretty, spirited Rapunzel; Elsa Wolthausen as an arch, hip-hopping witch with hair envy; Shea Alexander as Rapunzel’s flighty mom; Matt Thompson as a helpful, enchanted tree with a surprise secret; and Anthony Mannix as the romantic, self-proclaimed Prince. They have strong singing voices, they’re comfortable with the audience (a must), and they put bounce in the predictable fare.

Unlike many Falcon family theater offerings, there isn’t as much audience interaction, just a few props given out to a handful of young volunteers who deliver them on request as the action proceeds. The cast, however, handles it with an easy warmth that makes the rest of the audience feel included. The show is spiffed up by Sherry Santillano’s set with its high-rising, rose-covered tower, Andrea Housh’s atmospheric lights and Jeremy Grody’s sound design.

*

Family theater

‘Goldilocks and the Three Tenors’

Where: Occidental College, Remsen Bird Hillside Theater, 1600 Campus Road, Eagle Rock

When: Thursdays-Saturdays,

10 a.m.; ends Aug. 23

Cost: $5-$8

Info: (323) 259-2922

‘Rapunzel’

Where: Falcon Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank

When: Saturdays, 1 and 3 p.m.; Sundays, 1 p.m.; ends Sept. 7

Cost: $10

Info: (818) 955-8101