Unofficial Musical Parodies don’t get any more inventive than Annika Hoseth’s delightful take on the 2007 animated Walt Disney smash Meet The Robinsons, now completing its crowd-pleasing run at the Broadwater Mainstage.

The story that book, music, and lyrics-writer Hoseth and her fellow cast members are unofficially parodying at maybe 0.001% of the Disney movie’s nine-figure-budget is the same one that has captivated kids and adults of all ages for the past two decades, the fantastical and heartstrings-tugging tale of a 12-year-old orphan named Lewis (Lars Toler) who wants nothing more than to be adopted.

Unfortunately for our preteen hero, being a child prodigy more interested in inventing gadgets than in sports or video games (or just about anything that prospective parents are looking for in a so-called “normal” 12-year-old) doesn’t yield the kind of results Lewis is hoping for on visitors’ day despite the ever optimistic encouragement of Sixth Street Orphanage director Mildred (Andrea Geones).

And so Lewis decides to take matters into his own hands and invent a Memory Scanner that will allow him to recollect his mother’s face, and with that image in his mind’s eye, head off in search of her.

Unfortunately for Lewis, who should appear the day of the school science fair than a mysterious bowler-hat-sporting man intent on sabotaging Lewis’s invention for reasons known only to him and his  mind-of-her-own hat Doris.

Bowler Hat Man (Danny Gendron) isn’t the only mysterious figure to pop into Lewis’s life that day, however, because not only does 13-year-old Wilbur Robinson (Mykeal North) show up out of the future but before you you can say Jack (make that Wilbur) Robinson, the two boys have traveled thirty years into the future to Meet The Robinsons, with Bowler Hat Man hot in pursuit.

Oh, and before I forget, there’s also an important subplot involving Lewis’s orphanage chum Michael “Goob” Yagoobian (Nathan Schoenberg), whose life is irreparably changed when he dozes off mid-baseball game to disastrous results thanks to an all-nighter spent helping Lewis with his science fair project.

If this seems a lot of plot to follow, it is, which is one reason why if you haven’t seen the original animated feature, I recommend checking it out on Disney+ or DVD before seeing its Unofficial Musical Parody.

Another reason for viewing or re-viewing the Meet The Robinsons The Movie is to see how cleverly book writer/director Hoseth and her production team have reimagined a movie that cost $150,000,000 to make (equal to $250,000,000 adjusted for inflation) and involved a gazillion creatives, and do so on a nearly bare stage save assorted props and set pieces … and the audience’s powers of imagination to do the rest.

As book writer, Hoseth knows precisely how to pay tribute to a copyrighted original with just enough parodying to qualify as Fair Use under U.S. copyright law, and as a song writer, she knows precisely how to write clever lyrics set to melodies you may find yourself humming as you leave the theater.

Equally importantly, as delightful as Lewis’s adventures in both the present and the future are, it’s the heart of his story that makes both the original movie and its unofficial parody so emotionally powerful, and with Toler winning us over from Lewis’s first entrance, the role could not be in perkier or more poignant hands.

A fabulous Gendron steals every single scene he’s in as the deliciously dastardly Bowler Hat Guy, aided and abetted by Mizuki Sako’s graceful and beguiling Doris.

The charismatic North gives Wilbur plenty of boyish spunk, and the rest of the Robinsons are brought to colorfully kooky life by Ben Cassil (Grandpa Bud), Zachary Goldsmith (the Robinson’s faithful family robot Carl plus Lewis’s science teacher Mr. Willerstie), Hoseth (Frannie), Kyle Pearson (Uncle Art), and Karen Zipor (Grandma Lucille, doubling as Dr. Krunkelhorn), with Leah Scurlock completing the cast in a variety of cameos that show off her operatic soprano and Melvin Biteng’s Cornelius showing up as a climactic surprise to reveal power pipes in the eleventh-hour “Right On Track.”

Hoseth wears even more hats (or should that be bowlers?) as music director and as co-props-&-set designer (with Aviva Miller), though she does leave choreographic duties to Angelikah Chun and Biteng, who know exactly how to tailor dance sequences to fit a cast’s particular talents.

Last but definitely not least, Caleb Brunman provides expert keyboard accompaniment throughout the show.

The Unofficial Meet The Robinsons Musical Parody is produced by Hoseth and Nina Shiraishi. Matteen Tangvi and William Franke are associate producers. Nick Johnson is sound designer and projection programmer. Matthew Steward is board operator and lighting programmer. Josh Van Veggel is stage manager and Shiraishi is assistant stage manager.

If it hadn’t been for The Unofficial ‘Meet The Robinsons’ Musical Parody I wouldn’t have discovered the enchanting animated film that serves as its inspiration, and though I recommend checking out the movie original before seeing it so lovingly and inventively parodied on stage, The Unofficial ‘Meet The Robinsons’ Musical Parody stands on its own as ninety-minutes of shoestring-budget live theater at its most imaginative.

The Broadwater Mainstage, 1076 Lillian Way., Hollywood. Final performance Sunday June 28 at 3:00.
https://sites.google.com/view/meettherobinsonsmusical/

–Steven Stanley
June 20, 2026

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Tags: Annika Hoseth, Los Angeles Theater Review, The Broadwater Mainstage