Hip Shot: ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Mountain at Mt. Vernon Place United Methodist Church
Remaining Performances:
Thursday, July 23 @ 8 p.m.
They say: “Four adventurers step through a wardrobe door and into Narnia, a frozen land enslaved by the White Witch. When almost all hope is lost, the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great change and sacrifice.”
Hilary’s take: I haven’t the patience for children’s productions.
Looking at the Fringe guide, I wondered how C.S. Lewis’ best known work could be condensed into 42 minutes. Well, the production was actually 30 minutes. And it felt long. But I’m about 15 years older than the target audience and I left my stunt children at home. With no ability to gauge the play’s success on my own, I inferred from the sporadic giggles behind me that the Adventure Theater production had achieved its goal: to entertain the kiddies.
All that said, the performance was technically perfect. Peter and Lucy, firmly in the present, recount the siblings’ past discovery of Narnia, subsequent revolutionary crowning, and 30-year reign. Staging is minimal—just a small wardrobe on wheels and three wintry tapestries speckled with firs, glitter, and Christmas lights—and so is the cast. Kristen Egermeier and Danny Pushkin field the ten or so characters—Susan, the White Witch, and various stone statues and Edmond, Mr. Tumnus, and Aslan, respectively. Egermeier and Pushkin hop around the stage and ramble like authentic children with admirable abandon, taking the antics offstage to whip up some more giggles from the pint-sized patrons. I guess Pushkin sensed the parents and I needed a jolt of enthusiasm, and high-fiving Aslan’s giant plush paw—that which had just slain the wicked witch—was the highlight of my experience.
See it if: You have kids and/or have already seen The Pirates of Penzance.
Skip it if: You don’t have kids.
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11:59 am
Why does CP (and DCTheaterscene, et al) send reviewers to shows they clearly have no interest in or desire to see? It seems this does not give the production a fair chance for a helpful review, and judging from the other reviews on this site, it seem a common problem. How are reviewers assigned to shows?
2:08 pm
Two thoughts:
1. Some of the best reviews I’ve given have been for shows that I wouldn’t have seen had I not been sent to them. (And yes, I’ve given lousy reviews to shows I very much wanted to see.)
2. I don’t have kids, but I took my best friend’s kids to Kung Fu Panda and had a great time. There’s children’s entertainment that really only amuses children and there’s children’s entertainment that amuses both children and adults. I think pointing out that this is the first kind is quite reasonable.
3:43 pm
I loved this show (and I don’t have kids). Yes, I was very fond of the Narnia books as a kid, but even for the uninitiated, this show was entertaining and very creative. I was actually amazed how well they captured the essence of the storyline in 42 minutes (my production ran the full time).
Kids can be the toughest audiences at Fringe, but those in the audience were squealing with delight, as was I. The flexible set piece was more than just a Wardrobe (somewhat fitting!) and had to be carefully designed for the show. The two actors showed real talent, fluidly hopping in and out of so many characters to construct an engaging story. It just now occured to me that, one hour before I saw “The Lion…” I had seen Egermeier in a separate Fringe show, “Goodbye Love…,” but didn’t even recognize her in her new role.
Hilary honestly points out her bias, but then reports the technical merits of the production. The bottom line is that it is geared for kids, and I think she made that clear. Considering the very few offerings even remotely appropriate for kids, this show is on the Fringes just because it is not “Fringey.” Considering how much effort went into rehearsing this show, my biggest disappointment was actually how small the audience was in one of the largest (fully air conditioned) Fringe venues.
10:23 am
Dear criticalmess –
I do the assigning around these parts. The process is a combination of schedule availability, diversity within each reviewer’s schedule, and serendipity. As Suzyn pointed out, one of the most fulfilling things about reviewing Fringe is that you almost always end up loving a show that you would have never seen had you not been assigned to review it. The fact of the matter is, when I’m assigning shows, I know very little about most of them. So it’s always a crap shoot, and I think the results are generally exciting and helpful, because in a perfect festival, fringe-goers too will attend shows that, upon first glance, they have no interest in reviewing.
-b
10:24 am
(**I meant the last word of that comment to be ’seeing’ rather than ‘reviewing.’ Though I suppose fringe-goers are engaged in a constant process of review.)
11:59 am
Thanks, Brian, for the clarification.
But that doesn’t really get at the gist of my question. You’ve got a diverse range of reviewers at your disposal. Why NOT send musical-lovers to the musicals, folks who like kids to the children’s shows, “mature” reviewers to the shows targeting them, Shakespeare lovers to the Classical acts, etc? It seems you could do everyone a favor by pairing up critics and shows with an eye to genre, if not specific interest. And having each critic review shows in a single genre might make for some interesting (and helpful) commentary.
Just a thought.