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Kabuki Overdue Gift to Audiences It may make you smile or cry to know that Walden Family Playhouse's Kabuki Gift is the first Asian-oriented theater to hit Denver in a long while (unless you count tours of Miss Saigon, which I don't). Cry because such an important part of world - and now American - culture has been left virtually untouched. And smile because at least your children are getting a glimpse. Granted, it's not exactly a deep or contemporary one. But in the hands of the right teacher, Kabuki Gift could be a terrific learning tool. Walden's producing artistic director, Douglas Love, has adapted his children's book into a musical version of The Emperor's New Clothes that sets the emperor in Japan, uses Kabuki theater as its style, and Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado as its musical basis. Director Gretta Assaly holds faithful to Kabuki, using the exaggerated gestures and stylized storytelling that are inherent in the Japanese art form. Costumer Laurie La Mere Klapperich turns out fine pajamas and kimonos, and the makeup - white face, red eyes and lips, black wigs - is appropriate as well. The set goes uncredited, a strange choice since its stark geometry is perfectly suited to the Japanese palace where most of the action takes place. That's where the Emperor Chubah (Frank Oden) is planning to marry off his unwilling daughter, Kiku (Natalie I. Collins) to his equally unwilling Lord High Commissioner (Eric Mather). Along come two tricksters to foil his plan, cousins Meimi (Lori Hansen) and Ichiro (Brad Evans), the latter of whom instantly falls in love with Kiku. Once they're hired to make the emperor's birthday robe, the plan is under way. A fine cast elevates Kabuki Gift above mere style. Its story is somewhat drawn out, with long sequences such as a hunt among screens growing tiresome. Such Gilbert and Sullivan songs as A Wandering Minstrel I are nicely adapted, although Oden needs to enunciate for children to get the slightest inkling of the song I've Got a Little List. Finally, this musical points out yet again the overriding need for live music at Walden. This recorded score is credited to a single performer, Jon Welstead, and it sounds like it: tinny, electronic and as if played entirely on a computer keyboard. You didn't hear much of that in 17th-century Japan. May 28, 2003 Rocky Mountain News < back to News |
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