Share
Whenever someone adapts a picture book into a full-length project, I cringe. (See - or rather don't - the movie made from "Where the Wild Things Are.") So when I heard that Children's Theatre of Charlotte was producing "If You Take a Mouse to the Movies," I had to suppress a wince.
What's to adapt? A mouse and a boy go to the movies. Throw in "Merry Christmas, Mouse," as CTC did, and a mouse and a boy go to the movies at Christmas time. No plot, no character development, no dramatic tension.
But CTC found a clever way to interpret Laura Numeroff's stories for wee kids, and that is not to "interpret" them at all.
Mouse (Nicia Carla) and Boy (Mark Sutton) see a cartoon extravaganza, purchase a Christmas tree, roll up a snowman with mouse ears, decorate the tree, make a happy mess.
I suppose they represent two halves of the same personality: Boy is responsible, ordered and calm; Mouse is anarchic, loud and has the attention span of a mousequito. No further analysis is required.
This all works because Larry Snipes' play confines their shenanigans to an hour, because Sutton and Carla sweat and prance and tumble and ad-lib so blithely, and because the main target audience is not yet ready to enter kindergarten.
This show is meant to introduce tots to their first theatrical experience, to a sense of wonder at popcorn chains that grow inexplicably and snowmice who can be assembled in seconds. Picture books are meant to get little ones enchanted by reading and aware of its infinite possibilities; this comedy serves the same purpose.
Alan Poindexter directed in knockabout fashion, and Bob Croghan designed sets that seem part storybook, part edible confection. Next weekend, Scary Mouse will come to town: the many-headed king in "The Nutcracker" who terrorizes Clara and her prince. But the good-hearted member of his species lays equal claim to your attention this season.
