This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
“Doctor De Soto,” the world premiere children’s musical adaptation of William Steig’s 1982 Newbery Medal-winning picture book, is onstage at the Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage through March 2. It is a brisk, fun and silly time for families living in or visiting the city.
Full of wacky costumes, performers having a great time and some really skilled shadow puppetry, Idris Goodwin’s take on the tale of a mouse dentistry office disrupted by a fox with a toothache departs significantly from the original source material by adding a new character to narrate the story from a child’s perspective. The themes and wit of the piece, though, remain intact.
Running 45 minutes, “Doctor De Soto” introduces important notions of compassion, kindness, responsibility, integrity and even personal safety to the children of the audience without being preachy or condescending. It’s bright and colorful, and full of crafty details that emphasize its storytelling. It’s fast and engaging.
Credit: Photos by Greg Mooney
Credit: Photos by Greg Mooney
This version is narrated by Young De Soto (Shelli Delgado), the small mouse child of Dr. and Mrs. De Soto. The character strives to be an apprentice in the busy family practice, which provides care to the mouths of the animal kingdom — on the sole condition that prospective patients are not predators who eat mice.
Dr. De Soto (Shaun MacLean) and his wife (Kala Ross) established that policy to assure their own safety, and it has worked well for them. The practice is booming, filled with herbivores who need help brushing and flossing — so many, the whole family is in need of a vacation. Instead, they are faced with an emergency that challenges their ethics.
A fox (Bethany Anne Lind) has a rotten bicuspid and is in terrible pain. Though the parents turn away the patient, young De Soto thinks it’s best to help, in spite of any danger. Since foxes are cunning and hungry, though, the answer to the problem may not be clear-cut.
Delgado portrays her character with spunk and verve, and she has great fun during the many original raps and rhymes written for the show by Brandon Bush.
Curry and MacLean play very funny, furry parents who are understanding and never too harsh. Lind’s portrayal has some edge, but the character is goofy and thankfully never scary.
Credit: Photos by Greg Mooney
Credit: Photos by Greg Mooney
The biggest draws of the play are its technical achievements in puppetry and costumes. The shadow puppets, designed by Lynn Jeffries and performed by Aretta Baumgartner and Sarah Beth Hester, reinforce the notion that animals of various sizes are in scenes together. Using drop screens and projections, the audience gets to see what stakes are actually at play when a mouse steps into the mouth of a fox.
Directed by Mark Valdez, the staging subtly teaches its audience about multiple points of view, often by syncing the human performers’ moves and the puppets together for many carefully blocked sequences.
The costumes by Garry Lennon are very funny, ranging somewhere between functional medical wear and theme park mascots.
Audiences will enjoy “Doctor De Soto” more than any other trip to a human dentist.
IF YOU GO
“Doctor De Soto”
Through March 2 at Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage. 10:30 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23 (only). Adults, $20; children $10. 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. alliancetheatre.org
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Benjamin Carr is an ArtsATL editor-at-large who has contributed to the publication since 2019 and is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Dramatists Guild, the Atlanta Press Club and the Horror Writers Association. His writing has been featured in podcasts for iHeartMedia, onstage as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and online in The Guardian. His debut novel, “Impacted,” was published by the Story Plant.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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