A storybook ending
A familiar fairy tale told in small chunks with a gentle contemporary twist or three; a song here, a hoot-and-holler chase there, a dance or two and loads of audience participation: That’s Storybook Theatre’s unchanging formula at Theatre West in L.A.
It’s been 20 years since the company -- created by Barbara Mallory Schwartz and her husband, TV and film writer/producer Lloyd J. Schwartz (“The Brady Bunch” movies) -- began producing shows for the preschool and kindergarten set. And if the simple productions with pleasant music and comfy adult actors are squarely in the “kiddie theater” camp, there’s no denying that pint-sized audience members have a blast.
That’s the case with the “The Ugly Duckling,” in which audience members help everything come out all right for Mama Duck (Kathy Garrick) and her swan-in-duck-clothing (Laura Marion).
-- Lynne Heffley
“The Ugly Duckling,” Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, L.A. 1 p.m. Saturdays. Ends March 24. $10. (818) 761-2203. www.theatrewest.org
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