Pint-size thugs invade Laguna tonight

Tom Titus

The mobsters are coming to Laguna this weekend, but they’re all

too young to drive the getaway car.

Some 54 children, ranging in age from 5 to 15, are featured in the

cast of “Bugsy Malone,” the latest offering from the No Square

Theater, opening tonight for a single weekend at Laguna Beach High

School’s Artists Theater.

“Kids today are inundated with television, video and computer

games,” says Roxanna Ward, artistic director of the Laguna theater

group. “This show gives our cast of kids the opportunity to learn new

skill sets and the joy that comes from committing to a project and

seeing it through together.”

Hopefully, Ward adds, it also will inspire the youngsters’

appreciation and knowledge of the distinctly American art form of

musical theater.

Those with long memories may recall the movie version of the Alan

Parker-Paul Williams musical, which featured a promising teenage

actress named Jodie Foster. It’s a comedy about Prohibition-era

gangsters in which the gag is that they’re all kids.

Laguna’s version promises to be a bit more authentic, if not quite

so extravagant.

The movie version dubbed the kids’ singing with adult voices. The

No Square youngsters will be doing all the warbling themselves.

“The best thing about ‘Bugsy Malone,’” observes

director/choreographer Steve Josephson, “is that the kids get to be

in it and help create how we interpret the show. They develop

relationships with one another and learn how to cooperate.”

The youngsters play mobsters in the 1920s in thing tongue-in-cheek

tribute to the gangster movies of the 1930s. The pint-sized saga

culminates with a nonviolent war where flying pies and silly string

take the place of bullets.

“It’s a thoroughly charming, irreverent and clean -- though very

messy -- showcase for the cast of talented young performers,” says

Ward, who is serving as musical director. Director Josephson may be

dealing with kids here, but his background is first class. He wrote

and directed the off-Broadway musical farce “Some Summer Night,”

which won the New American Musical Writers Festival. In Los Angeles,

he staged the West Coast premiere of Alan Menden’s “Weird Romance,”

and choreographed “Manet” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the Laguna

Playhouse.

He’s right at home with his young cast, however, noting that

performing in “Bugsy” will instill self-confidence.

“If they can get up in front of an audience, they’ll be able to

talk in front of any large group,” Josephson notes.

Josephson also conducted a Creative Theater Workshop and

Performance class for kids 10 to 15 for the No Square Theater, one of

five summer classes offered by the group. Upcoming is a class on

Vocal Auditions for the Musical Theater, offered to youths from 13 to

18 and beginning Monday.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Coastline Pilot