Unpacking playhouse adjectives

Tom Titus

If your grade-schooler is having trouble with the three Rs -- or even

history or science -- march your child over to the Costa Mesa Civic

Playhouse, where he or she not only will get an instant education,

but will have a lot of fun.

“Schoolhouse Rock Live” which is making its first local

appearance, has its genesis in a series of public service

announcements during the Saturday morning cartoon shows of the 1970s.

And director-choreographer Jason Holland makes certain that playgoers

who remember these spots feel at home -- the pre-show music features

theme songs from TV comedies of the ‘70s, such as “Maude,” “The

Jeffersons” and even “Scooby Doo.”

When the lights go up, the central character is a teacher (Marc

Montminy), about to start his first day of class and a bit nervous

about how to proceed. That’s when five other facets of his

personality appear -- through a giant TV set upstage center -- to

offer their counsel and advice.

The rest of the show is a primer in how to make learning fun.

Parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) have their own

production numbers, and it’s a good bet that youngsters can grasp

their function a lot quicker this way than memorizing a textbook.

History is presented with rhymes about famous inventors (Edison,

Bell, Ford, etc.) and math comes in the form of a group of ice

skaters doing figure-eights -- which double as multiplication tables

in the show’s most deftly choreographed number.

The teaching assistants -- Kristen Flowers, Ana Marie Gedney,

Laura Lindahl, Mark Phillips and Stan Morrow -- are an upbeat quintet

who function in various guises (Allison Eberly replaces Lindahl on

Sunday matinees) in such numbers as “Unpack Your Adjectives,”

“Conjunction Junction” and “Interplanet Janet.”

For a civics lesson, the number “Just a Bill” traces a piece of

legislation through Congress as it becomes law. “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly”

is a tribute to the importance of adverbs. Immigrants to America are

celebrated in “Great American Melting Pot” and shouts of

“Interjections” emphasize that particular part of speech.

About the only number that really doesn’t work is “Sufferin’ Till

Suffrage,” in which the three women strive vainly to be heard above

the three-piece band led by Stephen Hulsey. The music boosts the

spirit, but occasionally overshadows the lyrics.

The original “Schoolhouse Rock” was a series of cartoons that ran

Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1985, then returned by popular demand

in 1994. It was about that time that the theatrical version was born

in Chicago, and it’s taken a decade for Holland, who performed with

the original Chicago project, to bring the show to Costa Mesa.

For those who were TV-watching kids in the 1970s and ‘80s,

“Schoolhouse Rock Live” will be a welcome slice of nostalgia.

*

South Coast Repertory’s NewSCRipts series continues Monday with

“Anon,” written by Kate Robin, a writer-producer of HBO’s “Six Feet

Under.”

Mark Rucker will direct the staged reading, which contains strong

language. Tickets are available for $8 by visiting the SCR box office

or by calling (714) 708-5555.