Theater Reviews : Singing Puts ‘Lost Children’ in Tune

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO —  If critics could give an E for Effort, then David A. Lewis’ “The Lost Children” would get an E-plus.

But effort alone, alas, does not a play make.

Lewis’ original children’s musical at the Camino Real Playhouse here exudes wholesomeness and hard work. But Lewis, who shows genuine talent in crafting catchy melodies, has taken on too much with writing the book, music and lyrics and directing the show. If anything, he tries too hard, and it’s apparent in every move “The Lost Children” make.

The story is a predictable good-versus-evil yarn, a cross between “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “The Wizard of Oz,” without the subtlety or humor to make it fly. And yet, occasionally, when a genuinely original character pops up like shy Mr. Wind (delightfully played by Bart McHenry), one catches a glint of the golden possibilities submerged in this murky riverbed.

Like “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”--a version for which Lewis once wrote the music and lyrics--the story begins with two brothers and their two sisters at boarding school.

After a heavy-handed and remarkably humorless opening in which the boarding-school director is cast as an evil man who breaks kids’ Power Ranger toys, scalps teddy bears and makes the kids go to bed at 7, the children run away into the library and disappear into another world.

Instead of landing in C.S. Lewis’ Narnia, they wind up in Atlantis, but with the same general population of friendly, talking animals. As in Narnia, there are creatures who represent good and evil. So instead of Aslan and the White Witch, we get Zobel and Diebolt.

But as in the film version of “The Wizard of Oz,” the journey also works as a dream; in it, the actor who plays Zobel also plays the kids’ father, the actor who plays Diebolt also plays the boarding-school director, and the actress who plays Atlantis’ Ms. Sunbeam also plays their mother.

The performers tend to overact, but they are, on the whole, among the show’s assets, particularly in the singing department.

John Florentin brings a commanding voice to Mr. Reynolds and Zobel; Laura Lewis, the playwright’s wife, offers a lilting soprano as Mrs. Reynolds and Ms. Sunbeam; Diane Milo gives a sweet tang to Ms. Moonbeam and Ms. Barmore; and Russ D. Stewart is easy to like as the very appealing, vaudeville-loving, half-animal/half-man Mr. Conoaky. Tani Reynolds as Mrs. Rain delivers one of the show’s sweetest and simplest songs, “A Little Bit of Rain,” charmingly a cappella.

*

The children clearly are newcomers to the stage but so fresh-faced, eager and sincere that they are beyond reviewing. Perhaps the hardest job of the critic is to be greeted after the finale by one of those innocent fresh-scrubbed faces rushing off stage and to be asked--as everyone in the audience was asked--”Did you like it? Did you have a good time?”

The 6-year-old girl sitting next to me, wearing her best party dress and a wide-eyed expression of wonder and delight through most of the action, had no problem answering in the most enthusiastic of affirmatives.

And maybe that is the ideal age from which to view this show.

* “The Lost Children,” Camino Real Playhouse, 31776 El Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. ends Aug. 14. $10 adults, $5 children under 12. (714) 557-2059. Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes. John Florentin Mr. Reynolds, Zobel

Terrence Baxter: Mr. Nyquist, Diebolt

Laura Lewis: Mrs. Reynolds, Ms. Sunbeam

Tani Reynolds: Mrs Conoaky, Mrs. Rain

Bart McHenry: Mr. Wind

Russ D. Stewart: Mr. Conoaky

Diane Milo: Ms. Moonbeam, Ms. Barmore

Bradley Mielke: Andrew

Ryel Weaver: Elna

Bryan Pauley: Beau

Crystal Talbot: Brandee

David A. Lewis Productions. Book, music, lyrics, arrangements and direction by David A. Lewis. Additional story: Tani Reynolds and Laura A. Lewis. Additional arrangements: David Reeves. Additional direction: Bart McHenry. Choreography: Diane Milo and Laura A. Lewis. Sets: David A. Lewis, Teddy Hurley and Laura A. Lewis.