A FROGGY BECOMES


If you’ve ever been twelve years old, you’ll get an extra special kick out of Becky Wahlstrom’s wild and wacky and way-out-there coming-of-age comedy A Froggy Becomes, now getting the most exhilarating of World Premiere stagings at Open Fist Theatre.

On paper at least, Wahlstrom’s play might sound like an ABC Afterschool Special from the 1980s during which it is set.

Its 7th-grade protagonist Aubry “Bumpy” Diggs (Sandra Kate Burck, grown up but playing 12), finds herself outshone on a daily basis by her Madonna-lookalike bestie Karen Simigliano (Kyra Grace), nurses an impossible crush on the cutest and most popular boy in school (Tom Sys as Allen Pokay), and if this (and her braces) weren’t already a lot for a tween to deal with, her mother (Johanna McCkay) is having an affair with local Catholic priest Father Angelo (Michael Lanahan) and her father (Peter Breitmayer as Ogre) is a foul-mouthed, abusive drunk.

But ABC Afterschool Special this is not, as becomes clear the second Bumpy breaks the fourth wall to inform us that Allen may be the most popular boy in school but “I love him for reasons deeper than that. He can breakdance!” Or describes her frustration whenever Karen, who’s got “the most perfectly feathered hair,” pulls a comb from her back pocket and starts using it “whenever the story you’re telling at the time starts to bore her.” Or launch into one of the dances she, Karen, and their other bff Rita Miller (Carmella Jenkins) have “choreographed” for each and every one of Madonna’s songs.

And if this weren’t already enough to convince us that A Froggy Becomes is the furthest thing from what Bumpy, Karen, and Rita might have tuned into six or seven times a year on their local ABC affiliate, just wait until Ogre shows up as a larger-than-life puppet sporting a humongous bobble head, gangly arms, gavel-like hands, and diaper-like jockey shorts as he gobbles down beer can after beer can after beer can.

It’s this mix of the teen-angst serious and the outrageously zany that makes A Froggy Becomes such a treat as we accompany Bumpy on the bumpiest of rides towards young adulthood.

And unless your adolescence went off without a hitch, you’re likely to empathize with Bumpy as she contends with school, parents, friendship, sex, sleepovers, science projects, and boys (though not necessarily in that order).

Pat Towne directs with utmost imagination and gleeful abandon, eliciting one gem of a performance after another, most notably from the infectiously, unstoppably engaging Burck, who scarcely leaves the stage as she both narrates and participates in Bumpy’s life-lessons-learning journey.

Grace and Jenkins make for the bubbliest of besties, Sys’s Allen is as goofy as he is dreamy, and Deandra Bernardo (Tiffany), Jeremy Guskin (Jimmy), Ana Id (Tiffany’s Cousin), Bradley Sharper (Pauly), and Kyle Tomin (Pat) lend hilarious support (including some occasional puppeteering) throughout the show while having great fun playing half their age.

As for the adults, McKay is a formidable, force-of-nature marvel as Mother, Lanahan doubles delightfully as a by-the-rules science teacher and a break-the-rules Priest, and Breitmayer fumes, rages, burps, and farts like nobody’s business inside a twice-as-large-as-life costume.

Following the playwright’s instructions, scenic designer Jan Munroe keeps things to a bare black-box minimum save for a staircase, a couple of movable doors, and some giant building blocks, allowing Mylette Nora’s colorful 1980s tweens wear, Matt Richter’s colorful lighting, Bruce Dickinson and Ina Shumaker’s ingenious props, Joe Seely’s whimsical puppets, and Marc Antonio Pritchett’s imaginative sound design to steal the show.

 A Froggy Becomes is produced by Martha Demson. Cj Merriman is assistant director. John Dimitri is production stage manager. Nicolette Henry is puppet seamstress. Susan Gordon is publicist.

 Having once been a preteen herself (and having played a teenager in 44 episodes of TV’s Joan Of Arcadia), Becky Wahlstrom clearly knows what it’s like to be (in the immortal words of Britney Spears) “not a girl, not yet a woman.”

The result of all this expertise (and the most fertile of imaginations) is A Froggy Becomes, 75-minutes of fabulously fanciful fun.

–Steven Stanley
March 16, 2024
Photos: Jenny Graham

Open Fist Theatre Company @ Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village.
www.openfist.org

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

 

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