THEATER REVIEW:A peachy children’s fantasy

If you had lost your parents to a ravaging rhinoceros and had been shuttled off to live with two perfectly awful aunts, a sponge and a spider, well, you’d probably be ready to hitch a ride on the first giant peach that happened along.

This is the rather outrageous premise to Roald Dahl’s children’s story “James and the Giant Peach,” and it makes a colorful inspiration for South Coast Repertory’s musical adaptation by David Wood of the popular Dahl fantasy.

Presented as part of the repertory’s Theater for Young Audiences series, “James and the Giant Peach” is eye-catching and imagination-igniting in its presentation, under the direction of Shelley Butler on the Julianne Argyros Stage.

The six actors, all but James playing multiple roles, are skilled at involving the youngsters in their incredible journey, which continues for two more weekends. It’s one you’ll want to share with your own kids or grandkids.

As clever and fanciful as Dahl’s more famous creation, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” the show really has no moral imperative other than causing you to think twice the next time you plan to step on a bug. Beyond James, you see, all of the characters are of the insect persuasion.

Alex Miller, last seen at South Coast Repertory in the title role of “The Adventures of Por Quinley,” fits comfortably into the role of the orphaned James, a cute kid with the world’s worst luck in adoptive guardians who gleefully latches onto the giant peach of the title for a transoceanic adventure.

The wretched sponge and spider who make him a veritable slave are gleefully enacted by Louis Lortorto and Jennifer Parsons, who morph into a centipede and a ladybug, respectively, to join James on his journey. Both project their characters’ particular peculiarities quite vigorously.

Diana Burbano assumes the role of a more sympathetic spider, whose websmanship bails James and the others out of a sticky situation when the peach sets down in the shark-infested ocean. Gregg Daniel fiddles around smartly as a grasshopper, while Tom Shelton grouses and frets as a blind earthworm about to discover his own “humanity.”

Outfitting these creatures beautifully in their larger-than-life insect garb is Angela Balogh Calin. Sibyl Wickersheimer’s “big peach” setting and Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz’s brightly executed lighting effects also carry out the colorful fantasy of the show.

Neither creator Dahl nor adapter Wood “talks down” to the youngsters. Rather, they invite the kids into a “peachy” world of make-believe that most will be reluctant to leave.

WHAT: “James and the Giant Peach”

WHERE: South Coast Repertory, Julianne Argyros Theater, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

WHEN: Fridays at 7 p.m.; Saturdays at 2, 4:30 and 7; Sundays at 2 and 4:30, through Nov. 19

COST: $14 to $21

CALL: (714) 708-5555

IF YOU GO: