Loki & Lucy, Talespinner Children’s Theatre

(Bryan Ritchey as Loki and Melissa T. Crum as Lucy)

It’s always best if a children’s theater piece is also amusing to the adults who are accompanying the little ones. After all, they deserve something for bringing the tykes to the show, paying for their tickets, and keeping track of their shoes, etc.

And this play, a Norse myth adapted for the stage by Michael Geither, has plenty for kids and adults to enjoy. Geither’s script is quite charming, and the performance by the five cast members, under Alison Garrigan’s energetic direction, is often hilarious.

Lucy is a young girl who is fascinated by a man whom she knows is in the tree outside her home. And when she goes to sleep, the tree comes to life as the impish Loki ushers her through a dream world populated by a lot of people with too many consonants in their names.

One of these is Thorbjorn Horabrudr, and Nate Miller is wonderful in the part, using his infinitely expressive face to register all sorts of Norwegian emotions. It’s hard to take your eyes off him, he’s so consistently amusing.

Then there’s muscle-bound but not-too-bright Thor, who wields his thunder hammer with relish in the person of Nicholas Chokan. And Brittany Gaul plays Lucy’s mom and the fiendish, fox-like Fenrir with gusto.

Bryan Ritchey as the tree-man Loki is remarkably agile, entirely personable, and quite a kidder: “Pull my finger!” And Melissa T. Crum captures the girlish enthusiasm of Lucy when she finds herself in that magical world.

Garrigan utilizes dance, inventive movement, puppets, masks, and a huge blue lobster to keep things interesting for the kiddies.

However, there’s a lot of unnecessary exposition jammed into the script, with a number of names and other details that get lost in the telling. This is possibly an attempt to be true to the source material, but the actors still make this hour-long journey a fun and often laugh-out-loud ride.

Loki & Lucy

Through October 12 at Talespinner Children’s Theatre, The Reinberger Auditorium, 5209 Detroit Avenue, 216-264-9680.

August: Osage County, Lakeland Civic Theatre

(From left: Diane Mull as Barbara Fordham, Courtney Nicole Auman as Ivy Weston and Debbie Jenkins as Karen Weston)

It’s a good thing Norman Rockwell never had Thanksgiving dinner at the Weston household, or that famous painting of his would have turned out a lot different.

The Westons, for the uninitiated, are the folks who populate this play by Tracy Letts, and they are a hot Oklahoma mess. Embodying all of the seven deadly sins and then adding a couple more, this is a family that would make a damn fine reality show.

And in this production at Lakeland College, featuring a cast of notable local actors, the sparks fly especially bright in the second act—after a first act that slips its gears a few too many times to be fully effective.

Family matriarch Violet Weston is married to her long-time husband Beverly, and they have an agreements that boils down to, as Violet says, “He drinks, I take drugs.” Violet is given to “telling truths” about her family, and that occasion arises when Beverly goes missing and the family is summoned from near and far.

Among the ruined people in this wreck of a family are older daughter Barbara, who is separated from her husband Bill. He still comes along, with their sullen teenage daughter Jean. Barbara has two sisters, weak and wan Ivy, who lives at the homestead, and Karen who lives with her fiance Steve (she will be his fourth wife) in Florida.

Then there’s Violet’s sister Mattie-Fae Aiken, her husband Charlie and their son, the fully-grown Little Charles. And this menagerie is watched over by the Native-American woman, Johanna (Caitlin Post), who was hired as a housekeeper by Beverly before he disappeared. Another outsider is Sheriff Deon Gilbeau (Michael Vitovich), who shows up with bad news.

This is a long and monumentally demanding show, and director Martin Friedman finds the bones of this script by having his actors dig hard. In the prime role of Violet, Anne McEvoy is a shattered collision of a human being, but she continually pulls herself together long enough to torment anyone within earshot.

Although he disappears soon, Robert Abelman as Beverly doesn’t obviously telegraph the situation, speaking convivially with Johanna during her job interview. But his steady drinking and his haunting singsong exit line, “Here we go ‘round the prickly pear…” suggests darkness to come.

Diane Mull as Barbara takes on the most emotionally complex role in the play and handles it well, although some of Barbara’s twists and turns at the end feel a bit choreographed. As for the other two sisters, Courtney Nicole Auman is a sad package as Ivy, and she implodes powerfully when she absorbs the brunt of the play’s most shocking revelation. Debbie Jenkins as Karen doesn’t quite find the through line of her Act Two opening scene, but she gets stronger as the play continues.

Andrew Narten is solid as Bill and Natalie Welch is properly irritating as Jean. Rose Leninger and Jeffrey Glover are well matched as the longtime bickering couple Mattie Fae and Charlie. And Aaron Elersich as sleazy Steve and Jeremy Jenkins as Little Charles contribute crisp and telling scenes.

The first act seems to build tension a bit too slowly, with the actors often tucked up stage in little corners of Keith Nagy’s necessarily complex set. But the second act is mostly a downhill rush to destruction, with the actors and the audience hanging on for dear life.

August: Osage County

Through October 5 at Lakeland Civic Theatre, 440-525-7034

Lakeland Community College Campus (just south of Rt. 90 and Rt. 306) in Kirtland.

Edward Albee’s OCCUPANT

No, it’s not Occupant by Edward Albee. The playwright’s name comes first in this title, which may indicate a slight insecurity with the material, a desire to make sure everyone knows the writer is that icon of American theater and not some schlub off the street.

Even though his name is above the title, marquee-wise, this play is not an ego-driven work. Instead it is an almost gushing tribute to Russian-born, groundbreaking sculptor Louise Nevelson, a long-time friend of Albee and a figure of imposing importance in the art world.

The structure of the piece is simply an interview, a historian with an encyclopedic knowledge of la Nevelson is asking questions of the admittedly long-dead artist. They both seem mildly amused by that situation, but they then launch into a Q & A that covers the entirety of Nevelson’s colorful life.

Everything, it seems, is touched on: her hard-working immigrant family, her unpleasant marriage, her sexual dalliances, her son, and finally her art.

With apologies to Mr. Albee, the best thing about this production is the acting. Under the precise direction of Greg Cesear, the two actors spin a sublimely hypnotic world. George Roth plays the sometimes challenging, often fawning interviewer with just the right touch of deference and devotion.

And as Nevelson, Julia Kolibab is a dark eyed force (Nevelson was famous for wearing multiple sets of sable eyelashes), dispensing truths and fictions about her existence with the same assuredness. Kolibab is a stunning presence, and you wish she’d go on talking for much longer.

This is not exactly a flawless production, however, since the script often seems like a glorified Wikipedia entry, albeit written with the wit and deft conversational feints that only Albee can concoct. And the insights, such as they are (“If you’re lucky enough, you become the person you are inside.”) are not exactly Earth-shaking.

And one wishes that more time was spent on the struggle of this inspired woman to work her way through the male-dominated art scene, and on her particular artistic vision.

Ah well, we’ll take what we can get. On a handsome set design by Laura Carlson Tarantowski, replete with Nevelson-like artifacts featuring detailed monochromatic black and gold boxes, the show manages to retain one’s attention throughout.

Ms. Nevelson would have appreciated that.

Edward Albee’s OCCUPANT

Through October 12 at PlayhouseSquare, Kennedy’s, 1516 Euclid Avenue, 216-241-6000..

Forever Plaid, Beck Center

(Plaids L to R: Brian Altman as Smudge, Shane Patrick O'Neill as Frankie, Josh Rhett Noble as Sparky, and Matthew Ryan Thompson as Jinx)

Time was, four clean-cut young lads could sing “Heart and Soul” in close harmony and make teenage girls scream and swoon. Sixty years before One Direction, groups such as the Four Aces and the Hi-Lo’s were laying out young female audiences with their lyrical takes on classic songs.

And the evergreen show Forever Plaid, now at the Beck Center, brings back that era of crooning post World War II innocence. As directed and choreographed by Martin Cespedes, this is an entertaining and endearing representation of the Plaid franchise, even if some of the songs don’t fly as high as they might.

The conceit of the book, written by Stuart Ross, is that the four high school vocalists were snuffed out by a school bus before their career took off. So through a cosmic harmonic convergence, the heavens have opened and brought them back to life to perform the concert they never performed in real life.

Each of the Plaids has his own little quirks, and these are brought to life nicely by Brian Altman (nerdy Smudge), Josh Rhett Noble (lively Sparky), Shane Patrick O’Neill (focused Frankie) and Matthew Ryan Thompson (fragile Jinx). Despite having names that sound like Snow White’s backup team of dwarfs, the boys get their act together in short order.

The song list is hefty and includes old-time faves such as “Three Coins in the Fountain” and “Catch a Falling Star.” And the comedy bits, such as a 3-minute mash-up of all the acts that used to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, come off without a hitch. Even if you weren’t around for the original, it never gets old seeing jugglers and stupid dog tricks—even if it’s a stuffed dog being tossed through a hula hoop.

Of course, the music is the reason for this show to exist, and the four performers fashion some sweet blends. However, the exacting demands of close harmony forces them to lower their volume on a number of songs. As a result, the glorious soaring notes many remember when the Four Aces crooned “Love Is a Man Splendored Thing” are not there.

Sure, many of the dance moves are just as they were when Ross directed and choreographed the original production of his show in 1990. And they can get repetitive (lean left, lean right, move the floor mic in a circle, etc.) Still, Cespedes and musical director Bryan Bird compose a crisp and nicely-paced production that keeps its foot on the pedal of musical memories.

As you might expect, there is precious little edgy material here, unless you get a tingle when one of the boys, in marketing mode, innocently says, “We’d like to work your private functions.” And that is true to the era when rock and roll was just beginning. Indeed, people back then were so clueless that pioneer rocker Bill Haley and His Comets’ first albums were called “foxtrots with vocals,” perhaps to appease the old folks.

But everyone knew what those masters of harmony in guy and girl groups were up to. And this Forever Plaid is a fitting tribute to that music of the Eisenhower years.

Forever Plaid

Through October 12 at the Beck Center, 17801 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood, 216-521-2540