BWW Reviews: The Perky MUSICAL ADVENTURES OF FLAT STANLEY

Flat Stanley is a well-known children's book that is now a musical playing as part of Orlando Shakespeare's Children's Series. It's fun, perky, and great for jump starting kid's imaginations. The Flat Stanley project involves a paper cut out and taking photos of the cutout in different places throughout the world. Prior to the show, Orlando Shakes' Flat Stanley traveled around America and Europe.

The musical adventure revolves around the Lambchop family and their son Stanley. Stanley dreams of doing great things and travelling the world. Due to a wish on a falling star and freak accident, Stanley is left flat. We follow Stanley as he figures out life as a flat kid and his travels throughout the world. There are a number of catchy songs and upbeat dance numbers that complement the light nature of the plot.

As Flat Stanley, Michael Sheehy is personable and funny. He spends most of the show strapped to his flat suit and is still able to sing and dance in it. The kid's could relate to Flat Stanley's imagination and laughed at his hijinx.

Stanley's brother, Arthur, played by John DeLisa is a great comedic actor with great versatility. I don't think the kids even knew that DeLisa played four different characters in the show. Same for the rest of the cast: Sarah Caroline Billings as Mrs. Lambchop; Ryan M. Skiles as Mr. Lambchop; and Melissa Mason Braillard. Each cast member played a multitude of different characters. It was impressive to watch the cast completely change characters and accents. They even handled some incredibly fast quick changes without blinking an eye.

Rob Winn Anderson is quickly becoming one of my favorite Director/Choreographers in Orlando. His choreography is always musical theater-y and he makes great use of the stage. I wondered how the transition from normal boy to flat would happen, but Anderson made some great decisions that did not break the storyline.

Props to the costume department of Orlando Shakes. They managed to create an outfit that gave Stanley the appearance of being flat, while not walking around behind a cardboard cut out. It did not look comfortable for Michael Sheehy to wear, it looked very cool.

One of my favorite things about children's shows at Orlando Shakes is that kids can sit up close to the stage close to the action. You can always tell if a children's show is good by the amount of laugh out loud humor. While FLAT STANLEY was entertaining for adults, the young audience members definitely loved the music, dancing, and comedy.

Be sure to come early to watch the cast interact with the young audience during the pre-show. THE MUSICAL ADVENTURES OF FLAT STANLEY runs at kid friendly times now until November 22, 2014. For tickets and more information visit www.orlandoshakes.org.

Photo Credit: Tony Firriolo/Orlando Shakespeare Theater

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