Playwright: G. Riley Mills and Ralph Covert. At: Chicago Children's Theatre at Royal George Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted. Phone: 312-988-9000; $28-$38. Runs through: Nov. 22
Adults playing small kids on stage can be cloying. But they can also tap into their own childhoods to add layers of self-awareness that most acting tots can't convincingly convey.
These two dynamics are on full display in Chicago Children's Theatre's world premiere adaptation of The Hundred Dresses. Actors like Tyler Ravelson ( as the costume-obsessed Willie Bounce ) and Elana Ernst ( as the cutesy tap-dancer Cecile Caldwell ) push far too hard. But the others bring the believable complexity to their turns as kids either facing crises of conscience or being blithely unaware of their hurtful behavior.
The tendency to over-enthuse is just one of the minor flaws in this new musical based upon a famous 1944 anti-bullying children's book by the team of author Eleanor Estes and illustrator Louis Slobodkin. But the positives largely outweigh the minor flaws in this spry and entertaining production directed by Sean Graney ( Honus and Me ) .
Instead of focusing mostly on the bullied girl Wanda Petronski ( a nicely sullen Lauren Patten ) or her spoiled tormentor Peggy Hawthorne ( a perky Natalie Berg ) , The Hundred Dresses focuses mostly on the bystander Maddie Martin ( Leslie Ann Sheppard ) .
As Maddie, Sheppard is fully able to convey how she knows the bullying is wrong ( especially when it's due to Wanda's lower-income status and her retort that she owns 100 glamorous dresses at home ) . But Maddie isn't brave enough to stand up to her popular friends doing the bullying.
Composer Ralph Covert of Ralph's World fame and playwright G. Riley Mills have created an overwhelmingly sunny take on The Hundred Dresses. Perhaps too much, since the adaptors don't dwell long enough on some of the darker elements of the story, like how teacher Miss Mason ( Nadira Bost ) refuses to intervene, nor of the outrage of father Jan Petronski ( Kurt Ehrmann ) at Wanda's mistreatment.
But what I really missed was a greater sense of contrition among the remaining school kids after Wanda's final act that shows how she wasn't a liar. The kids' realization that their failure to befriend Wanda comes off more as a celebratory staging moment of wonderment rather than one of remorse at a lost opportunity.
That said, The Hundred Dresses certainly captures a young audiences attention. The production design elements are as bright as a crayon-colored drawing, while all the musical aspects under the direction of music director Andra Velis Simon are top-notch.
In our day and age when the word "faggot" is one of the worst epithets hurled on the playground, bringing The Hundred Dresses' message about bullying in a new form is a noble and timely gesture by Chicago Children's Theatre. My only wish is that the creators were willing to show more darkness instead of being so relentlessly sunny.