SCR Youth Theater dresses ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’

Tom Titus

When South Coast Repertory elected to include a Theater for Young

Audiences series in its latest season, the company went first cabin

-- a classic fairy tale from Hans Christian Andersen set to music by

a Tony Award-winning team and a director who routinely turns youthful

playgoers on to the magic of theater.

The result is “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” a lively and colorful

treat featuring a quintet of professional performers that imparts a

familiar message -- it’s not what’s on the outside but what’s on the

inside that counts. It’s on stage at the Julienne Argyros Theater

through Nov. 16 and includes two weeks of free afternoon performances

for kids.

Director John-David Keller -- who’s helmed SCR’s annual production

of “A Christmas Carol” since the project was begun in 1980 and who

stages the theater’s youth touring production each year -- has

embellished this time-honored tale with some eye-catching

accouterments. There are juggling, tumbling and (perilous) stilt

walking to keep the youngsters amused between the enlightening

moments.

The youthful cast exudes comedic energy. Nanthanael Johnson

portrays the 14-year-old clueless new ruler -- who’s only finished

Chapter 1 of “How to Be an Effective Emperor” and is hardly ready to

take on the trappings of royalty. Johnson’s Marcus is a likable snob,

eager to befriend a palace scrub boy but mindful of his position and

outward appearances.

It’s this latter element that lands him in the clutches of a

character billed only as “Swindler,” a diabolical con artist

gleefully interpreted by Louis Lotorto, representing the negative

tenets of privilege -- greed, pride and surface attraction. Lotorto

manages to convince the emperor and his attendants that those who

can’t see his transparent new robes are fools and liars.

The real larceny, however, is perpetrated by Eric Newton, who

steals virtually all his scenes as the palace scrub boy. A trained

aerialist, Newton injects an infectious physical presence into the

show as well as interacting splendidly with Johnson’s emperor in

several of the dozen songs by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty which

keep the show bouncy and a lot of fun to watch for young and old

audience members.

Joseph Alanes and Carla Jimenez eagerly support the young ruler as

his obsequious palace functionaries. Their task is to keep the

emperor in a heightened mood, and they perform it with gusto.

Donna Marquet’s lavish set design, with decorative coat hanger

banners, slyly suggest the show’s theme, while the colorful costumes

of Angela Balogh Calin are particularly eye-catching under Christina

L. Munich’s lighting designs.

Musical director Tim Horrigan has orchestrated a richly modulated

score from the Ahrens-Flaherty team, which has created award-winning

shows such as “Ragtime” and “Seussical” and the animated movie

“Anastasia.” The “Emperor” project is actually one of their first,

created some two decades ago.

SCR’s Theater for Young Audiences project includes two upcoming

productions -- “Sideways Stories From Wayside School,” opening Feb.

6, and “The Wind in the Willows,” adapted by the company’s own

Richard Hellesen and Michael Silversher, which debuts June 4.

Judging by “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” the young audiences’

season is off to a running start.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.