Open Wardrobes

Yesterday afternoon I went with Kelly and my family to see Stuart Little at Lakeshore Players. After doing the holiday show the last two years it was difficult to forgo auditions this year in order to audition for Doubt (which did work out well, to be fair), and so I was certainly not going to miss the show. Claudia directed for the third year in a row, and I knew a good number of the cast, nearly half, which included many of the Greenies from last year plus a few others that I've worked with before. My two little nieces (5 and 3) came, it was the younger's first play, and they loved it! It is a cute, sweet story (though more episodic than I expected having only seen the movie) and the young actor playing Stuart did a fine job. It was a large cast, over 20, of mostly young performers and it is always fun to see kids on stage for the first time. Anne Westcott, one of the handful of adults, was a highlight as the devious cat Snowbell out to get both Stuart the mouse and the bird Margalo. Justin Baker, one of the kids in the cast, also had nice moments as the dog that Stuart keeps having to run from, and his older sister Jenna Baker was perfect as Margalo. The pacing of the play suffered a little from the episodic nature of the script, but on the whole it kept the attention of the mostly young audience (and from what I heard was loved by the school groups who came last week). Stuart Little closes this afternoon (the holiday show always has a short run) but Lakeshore always picks fun, family-friendly shows for this slot and so I recommend hitting the holiday show this time next year (rumor is it will be A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which should be fun). And of course Doubt is coming up next at Lakeshore which will be a show not to be missed (shameless plug). 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.