THEATER REVIEW : Thrust of ‘Three Musketeers’ Is Fun for All, All for Fun

Disney’s “all for one, one for all” blockbuster isn’t the only new version of Alexandre Dumas’ sword epic around. “The Three Musketeers” are kicking up their heels in Little Broadway Productions’ rollicking musical comedy adaptation of the classic. It’s a hoot for the elementary school set who get to cheer the heroes and hiss the villains, and it has comic touches enough to amuse parents, too.

The touring show, which played Orange Coast College over the weekend, wraps up a three-month swing of Southland schools and community theaters at Cal State Northridge on Saturday and Sunday.

Although the story about young D’Artagnan (Patrick Schuster); Musketeers Aramis (Vajdon Sohaili), Porthos (Eddie Crew) and Athos (Joel D. Martin); and royal intrigue in 17th-Century France is as sketchy and abridged here as in the movie, events manage to stay truer to the novel.

And, despite its modest budget, this unpretentious show--produced by Jill Shawn Adereth, adapted by Val Dunlap for grades one through eight and smoothly paced by director Marilyn Weitz--manages to be eye-pleasing and professional. The nonprofit Little Broadway Productions has been performing curriculum-related theater for Southland schools for 10 years.

It features versatile, good-looking set pieces (designed by Wanda Warburton with Ernie Gilbert) for quick scene changes, appealing costumes (by Weitz) that suggest the time period and above all, an engaging cast of eight adult actors who can sing with verve and who attack their multiple roles with humor, skill and unflagging enthusiasm.

Much clashing swordplay, carefully choreographed by Eric Margerum, is notable for its vigor if not technique and provides the satisfying swashbuckling element for action-hungry young patrons.

The music and lyrics by Mark Monarch are well-sung, pleasant and mostly forgettable, and a ‘20s-style song-and-dance duet between the Duke of Buckingham (Sohaili) and the Queen (Di Burbano) overstays its welcome, but one fast-paced routine--”the etching that is fetching, ‘round the tummy of the mummy”--strongly reminiscent of a Danny Kaye bit in “Court Jester,” is a wordplay delight.

The youngest audience members’ attention flags here and there, but the pace is quick enough, and the actors deft enough to catch them again.

Schuster gives D’Artagnan just the right touch of brashness and wide-eyed naivete and rounding out the accomplished cast are Cathy Gilbert as D’Artagnan’s comically klutzy love interest, Donna Getzinger as Milady De Winter and Brian Hall as De Rochefort, plotting against the throne with Crew as Cardinal Richelieu.

“The Three Musketeers,” Cal State Northridge, Campus Theatre, 18111 Nordhoff St., Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., $8; (818) 885-3093, (213) 480-3232, (805) 583-8700. One hour, 15 minutes.