Wood Boy Dog Fish, Rogue Artists Ensemble’s deliciously twisted take on Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio has moved uptown and upscale from the Bootleg to Toluca Lake, terrific news for those who like their fairy tales dark and dirty and theatrically magical.

 Disney fans will recognize puppet-maker Geppetto (Ben Messmer) and the Blue Fairy (redubbed simply “Blue” and played by Tane Kawasaki here), though as scripted by playwright-lyricist Chelsea Sutton (with Rogue Artists Ensemble) and directed by Sean T. Cawelti, Pinocchio’s Pop has been transformed into a self-pitying lush who alternates between drowning his sorrows over Blue’s death and confectioning marionettes for the puppet theater run by a rapacious Fire Eater (Keiana Richárd).

 Fox (Amir Levi) and Cat (Tyler Bremer) figure here too, though this time round it is not only to lead our hero astray but to serve as Fire Eater’s henchmen, the former gender-bending, the latter a tongueless mute.

 A cricket, too, makes an appearance before getting smashed to smithereens early on (sorry Jiminy), and a whale (the titular Dog Fish, played like Cricket by Paul Turbiak) shows up as well, though unlike that poor bludgeoned cricket he gets to play a more significant—and good deal more menacing—role from the start.

And yes, the string-free puppet’s wooden nose does grow whenever he tells a lie and yes, he and his bad boy buds do get transformed into donkeys.

 Still, Wood Boy Dog Fish is hardly your G-rated, family friendly fairy tale, and not simply because of the f-bombs gratuitously spewed throughout. One violent mishap after another befalls our puppet hero, all of which add up to a retitled, re-imagined Pinocchio best seen by teens and above.

 Among Wood Boy Dog Fish’s many must-see highlights are an underwater ballet performed by fish-balloon-wielding cast members rolling supine about the floor on torso-length skateboards, and a sequence featuring blowup dolls who morph into piñata donkeys once Puppet and his bad boy buds have entered a Funland and presided over by a decidedly creepy MC (Miles Taber).

Befriending Puppet along the way is feisty ragamuffin Wick (Lisa Dring), and lest you forget that Wood Boy Dog Fish is, like the Italian tale that inspired it, the story of a puppet who wants nothing more than to become a real boy, this latest take on Pinocchio doesn’t stint on the emotional impact factor in its final scene.

 A team of puppet/mask design whizzes* have come up with one Tim Burton-esque creation after another, most notably the wide-eyed, nails-for-hair Wood Boy, called Puppet here and given endearing voice by Rudy Martinez while being manipulated to believable perfection by a trio of black-clad puppeteers (Martinez, Sarah Kay Peters, and Mark Royston).

 Scenic designers François-Pierre Couture and Matt G. Hill’s fanciful moving set pieces, Dallas Nichols’ magical video design, Lori Meeker’s fantastical costumes, Hardly Human FX’s equally offbeat props, Jocelyn Pazos and Erica Romero’s quirky makeup design (merging to perfection with the puppet design team’s masks), Joey Guthman’s masterful lighting design, and Peter Helstrom’s LED design all combine to make Wood Boy Dog Fish a visual feast that would do the creator of The Nightmare Before Christmas proud.

Oh, and this time round, the Garry Marshall Theatre lobby is as much of a Funland treat as the real Funland itself.

 Adding to the magic are Adrien Prévost’s appropriately dark, moody, occasionally upbeat music, Steve Swift’s topnotch sound design, and Nate Hodges’ whimsical choreography, making Wood Boy Dog Fish seem at times almost as much musical as play.

Last but not least, it’s hard to imagine a more sensational cast than Bremer, Dring, Kawasaki, Levi, Martinez, Messmer, Peters, Richard, Royston, Taber, and Turbiak whether recognizable or hidden behind masks or under head-to-toe black, each of whom deserves his or her own paragraph of praise.

Jamie Lyn Beatty, John Patrick Daly, and Jobeth Wagner are understudies. Anil Margsahayam is production manager and Amanda Eno is production stage manager.

I was taken by Wood Boy Dog Fish at the Bootleg in 2015 and it is even more spectacular at the Garry Marshall. Count on WBDF 2.0 to be one of late spring 2018’s hottest tickets.

*Greg Ballora, Cawelti, Christine Papalexis, Jack Pullman, Morgan Rebane, and Brian White

Garry Marshall Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank.
www.GarryMarshallTheatre.org
www.RogueArtists.org

–Steven Stanley
May 18, 2018
Photos: Chelsea Sutton

Tags: Carlo Collodi, Garry Marshall Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Pinocchio, Rogue Artists Ensemble