Come on, be yourself

TWO children’s shows. Two spunky heroines challenging the status quo to do their own thing.

Two productions with the same message but vastly different methods of delivery: “Princess Bean’s Messy World,” a rock ‘n’ roll fairy tale spoof at Electric Lodge in Venice, and “The Rose of the Rancho,” a comic, history-based take on an early 20th century melodrama for ages 7 and up, by Parson’s Nose at the Pasadena Playhouse.

At the Electric Lodge’s black box theater, “Princess Bean” wraps its basic “be yourself” message in a surprisingly witty, slickly produced, big giggle of a musical that started life as a book and music CD.

Princess Bean, rock star of her own fairy tale book on a library shelf, seeks her official “princess license” by slipping into the pages of other books, where she encounters vapid, self-absorbed Cinderella (Rachel Sorsa Khoury), Sleeping Beauty (Sanae Barber) and Snow White (Annie Rollin).

Bean’s confidence is a little shaken: Maybe they’ve got the princess thing down better than she does. Until she bounces back with new appreciation for her own uniqueness, Bean is sabotaged by the other royals, who convince her that she needs a girlie-girl makeover to compete in the upcoming princess pageant, hosted by a self-infatuated emcee (Kevin Sage, doubling as a dragon) and a snooty pageant judge, a.k.a. Snow White’s Magic Mirror (Anthony Manough).

The rollicking show is a bit too big for the space, but director Clare Carey meets the challenge with deft assurance, as does her solid cast, led by petite dynamo Rachel Bean Resnikoff, who wrote the show with Eric Stephens.

The actors -- including Adam Taylor Brooke as a bashful Prince Charming and Jen Brown and Nikki Mckenzie as butterflies and pageant judge groupies -- offer terrific comic turns. With its fizzy rock and hip-hop music and choreography by Ameenah Kaplan and wicked zingers inspired by reality TV, this is one show that truly has all-ages appeal, even for tiny tots, who bopped onstage with cast members at a recent matinee during intermission and a post-show “dance party.”

“The Rose of the Rancho,” adapted by Parson’s Nose artistic director Lance Davis from David Belasco’s early 20th century classic, shifts this hiss-the-villain, cheer-the-hero play into an early California historical setting, astutely tailored to grade school curricula and providing laughs, but a mite more uneven than this literature-based company’s usual enjoyable efforts.

The “rose” is Juanita (Alexis de la Rocha), daughter of a Spanish land-grant holder in the early days of California’s statehood, who, yearning for adventure, knows she isn’t cut out for traditional marriage and motherhood, protesting when her mama (Alejandra Flores) demands she wed arrogant Don Luis (the hugely appealing Michael Manuel).

The local mission padre (Winston Rocha) is torn between supporting tradition and Juanita’s happiness, when a distraction arrives: Young American government official and “gringo” Kearney (Kurt David Anderson) has come to persuade Juanita’s suspicious family to register the deed to their property before land-grabbing outlaws, led by the nefarious Kincaid (John Harnagel), seize it.

Harnagel and Manuel, who co-directs with Davis, make their villainy fun in comic confrontations with the audience, but the piece cries out for musical punctuation and the pace was off at last week’s matinee, due in part to Rocha’s seemingly uncertainty in his role as the sympathetic padre. The result: a bumpy marriage between education and comedy.

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Showing spunk

‘Princess Bean’s Messy World’

Where: Electric Lodge Performance Space, 1416 Electric Ave., Venice

When: 2 p.m. May 27-28, June 3-4

Price: $10

Info: (310) 823-0710

Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

‘The Rose of the Rancho’

Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena

When: 11 a.m. Saturday

Price: $5

Info: (626) 356-7529, www.pasadenaplayhouse.org

Running time: 50 minutes