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As we’ve mentioned on this blog many times before, Janey grew up as a “theater brat” in St. Paul, and one of the many places she worked was Stepping Stone Theater for Youth Development. Back then it was located in the Landmark Center, and was a much smaller operation. But it’s mission has always been the same: to bring together students from all over the city and use theater arts as a tool to teach, inspire and build confidence. In 2007, the company moved into a spectacular renovated, 100 year old church building across from William Mitchell College of Law, and began producing plays in its 400-seat theater. Sad to say, we had not been to this not-all-that-new space until just recently, when the 4 of us headed over to see their production of “The Stinky Cheese Man”.

On the way over, Janey mentioned that one of the productions she was in at the theater was a sort of modernized version of Aesop’s Fables by frequent Stepping Stone collaborator David Simmons. 5 years later in 1997, the theater commissioned a musical based on Jon Scieszka’s twisted take on fairytales, “The Stinky Cheese Man” and this year they’ve revived the play for the 3rd time.

If you aren’t familiar with the book….uh…you should be. Jon Scieszka is now the official US Ambassador for Children’s Literature (sort of the Poet Laureate for the younger set) and in 1992 he and Lane Smith (one of my absolute favorite illustrators known for his somewhat dark style) created the book as a postmodern “remix” take on fairy tales. It’s built on a simple idea: what if the premise of famous fairytales was wrong? What if “The Gingerbread Man” was made of stinky cheese instead of delicious cookie, would people chase him or run away as fast as they can? What if “The Ugly Duckling” grew up to be just an ugly duck instead of a beautiful swan? What if happy endings weren’t a given in these stories?

The play takes these bizarro versions of famous stories and threads them together into a single narrative. 3 recurring characters drive the story: Jack (the beanstalk guy), Foxy Loxy (sort of a hodgepodge of the evil fox from many different stories) and The Little Red Hen (played by Alexander Kronfeldt, Chase Adelsman and Annacita Gomez respectively.) All 3 young actors were great in their parts, with Jack being the “good guy” – always wanting the fables to go in a traditional direction, Foxy being the agitator – enjoying when things work out differently and The Hen as intermittent comic relief.

Each of the stories is pretty funny for both adults and kids. “Cinderumplestiltskin” combines the two stories referenced in the title with unexpected results. “The Other Frog Prince” leads up to a funny awkward kiss that has no result at all except for the annoying princess being grossed out. “The Stinky Cheese Man” re-imagines “The Gingerbread Man” as the offspring of a Green Bay Packers-obsessed, do-nothing father and a lonely but absent-minded mother. A lot of the humor comes from these kinds of pop culture references – for example Rumplestiltskin is basically a dwarfish Michael Jackson complete with one shiny glove and a moonwalk.

Each of us had favorite bits: Mine was when Cinderella tries to explain to her stepmother the French origin of the word “Soiree”, the mother responds with “You’ve mistaken me for someone who gives a merde.” (I’m guessing you don’t need to know French to deduce what “merde” means. If you do, Google it.) Janey admitted to the catchiness of The Stinky Cheese Man’s musical numbers. 4-year-old Vincent was obsessed with the giant pointing hand that kept appearing above the actors – meant to be the hand of Jack’s nemesis, the Giant from the Beanstalk.

After the show all the actors came out and greeted everyone as they left, which I thought was an awesome touch. Vinny actually seemed kinda star struck about meeting “Jack” which was super cute.

I always like to “bottom line” these things so for this one I’d say: it’s youth theater, so it’s not Broadway but the performances are great, the play itself is funny and built on a cool concept, the theater is amazing and what they are doing is great work. I’m a well-known hater of musicals, so I wasn’t all that into that part, but the lyrics are funny and the music is catchy. Also, at about 60 mins, it is the perfect length for a family aged 4 to 40 with notoriously short attention spans. I mean that seriously, I was impressed that it held the kid’s attention so well.

The show runs for one more week with performances Wednesday through Sunday, August 1st.