Fairy tale musical closes Sunday

To the editor:

Folks, there?s trouble in Mother Gooseland, and you owe it to yourselves to go see ?A Time Out Of Rhyme? at Fairfield?s Sondheim theater and find out why.

Little Jack Horner wants to grow up but he can?t. Mary Quite Contrary is in love with Jack, but he has to grow up before he can love her back. And Captain Hook and his sidekick Smee have come on the scene from Never Never Land, taken hostages, and enslaved Mother Goose?s fairy-tale characters. Hook?s evil purpose is to deny Mother Goose fairy tales and rhymes to future generations of little children, so he can beat out the likes of Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter and reclaim his endangered status as a Truly Vile Villain.

Jack goes on a dangerous quest to try to stop Hook. Mary tries to stop Jack. Jack goes for it anyway. Mary goes chasing after him. Hook captures Mary and takes her to his dungeon in the Sinister Swamp, imprisoning her with his other hostages. Jack and Wee Willie Winkie rally the enslaved Mother Gooselanders and lead them in a rebellion. The Mother Gooselanders attack Hook?s castle, overpower Hook and his henchmen, free Hook?s captives, and banish Hook back to Never Never Land with the help of Peter Pan. Jack and Mary fall in love as former hostages Prince Christopher Cambridge and Princess Lady Lee get married. The liberated Mother Gooselanders celebrate the uniting of the prince and princess?s fairy tale kingdoms, which puts their time back into rhyme and ensures that Mother Goose?s bedtime stories, nursery rhymes and fairy tales will be safe for future generations of little children.

Got all that? Way Off Broadway brought in New York City director and choreographer Adam Cates to revamp the 2007 production of this timeless yet fresh and original musical theater classic-built-on-classics. This trimmed-down new version has a snappy pace and song-and-dance choreography of the kind that that won Cates a Best Choreography Tony Award this year for his work on the revival of ?Anything Goes? on Broadway. The cast is young and energetic, the elders are charming and funny, and there are two love songs in the score (?Compatibility? and ?Let Our Love Grow Strong?) that could easily become stand-alone pop hits with the right kind of exposure. It?s a fun show, and the final weekend is coming up. Shows are today through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and a matinee on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the 520-seat, air-conditioned theater at the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts in Fairfield.

? Patrick Bosold, Fairfield