Roarin’ Reviews

Wendy Remington Bowie · June 6, 2010

The Emperor’s New… Monsters! is the fourth episode of Monster Literature, produced by Mainspring Collective and the Brooklyn Lyceum. Monster Literature tells the continuing adventures of Benjy Bleeglehorn and her sidekick Bravo Kirkwood as they stop the evil wizard Zorlan Morlan from using his powers to rewrite monsters into great works of children’s literature. In this episode, Benjy and Bravo meet up with Hans Christian Andersen to save his “Emperor’s New Clothes” from Zorlan Morlan’s dastardly meddling. As they set out on their adventures, Bravo tires of being a sidekick and decides to set out on his own. The evil Zorlan Morlan preys upon Bravo’s need to be seen as awesome in order to trap Bravo in the stolen story, establishing him as the emperor of the imaginary Bravotown, a place where anyone who is found to be not awesome is subject to banishment, and supplying him with an entourage of monsters. A new monster enters Bravotown promising to make Bravo a suit of armor (complete with a laser module) that not only will be awesome, but that only awesome people will be able to see, making it a piece of cake to tell who is awesome (and can be Bravo’s friend), and who is not. Though Bravo and his monster entourage initially fall for the plot and pretend to be able to see this imaginary suit, Benjy and Hans Christian Andersen finally help them to believe in their own awesomeness by knowing what they’re good at, accepting the things for which they need to ask for help, and believing in themselves. Zorlan Morlan’s plot is foiled and another great work of children’s literature remains safe from his evil machinations.

Although this is the fourth episode in the series and it was clear that there was a full back story, as newcomers we had no problem hopping right into the story. I appreciated that the company set clear expectations for the children’s behavior from the outset—participation is encouraged and they should feel free to chime in. The space is very accommodating for kids with rows of seating and a set of mats on the floor for those kids who want to be as close as possible. This seating arrangement allows for a few kids to change their seats and get a little closer to the action as they get more comfortable.

It is clear that this company is skilled at creating theatre for children that meets them on their own turf, and as an added bonus, as a parent I found the performance genuinely enjoyable as well. This is not a kid’s script with clever one-liners thrown in for the parents’ benefit—the story stands on its own and the bits that are funny are simply, truly funny. During the story, the message was is broken down into clear sound bites that are reinforced several times, making it easy for kids to take away. I appreciated a great deal that their ultimate message is nuanced and real—they acknowledge outright that truly believing in yourself rather than relying on others’ opinions is sometimes the harder route to take, and even our heroine Benjy had moments of self doubt.

Aaron Scott as Bravo plays a loveable, approachable hero to whom the children easily related. It was impressive to watch Jenna Weinberg as Benjy Bleeglehorn and Alessandro King as Hans Christian Andersen drive the story along while simultaneously and seamlessly each working in a style appropriate and believable to their character without a hitch. Candice Goodman, Maya Baldwin, and Mark DeFrancis create a trio of unique, personable, and dimensional monsters. And Owen Scott as Zorlan Morlan is a simply delightful and hysterical villain. The design and direction create a distinctly cartoon atmosphere and the company effortlessly skips between styles and conventions of cartoons and kids television to recreate a rich, stylized world in real time. The streamlined set and props cleverly sketch out the world of the play, which make it an effortless endeavor (even as an adult) to fill it out with one’s imagination.

Monster Literature is intended for ages 5 and up and the kids in the audience at the performance we saw ranged from about 3 to 10 years old. The message might be too advanced for littler kids (it didn’t quite convey to my three year old) but it was totally engaging start to finish for the kids across ages in the audience and it creates a fantastic venue to introduce kids to performance. Samirah still talks about meeting the actors after the performance. Bravo was the focus of this episode, but the team of Benjy and Bravo make Monster Literature equally appealing to both boys and girls. And it’s always great to see a self-confident, capable heroine.

Overall, this is an inexpensive and lovely way to spend an afternoon. I know that we’ll be staying tuned for the next episode.

Check out our feature in Time Out Kids!’ CHEAP Issue of awesome, inexpensive things to do with the family!

The critics can’t stop raving! Click HERE to purchase your $5 tickets for the next installment online!

Robin Hood:  Prince of… MONSTERS!

Review by Tanisia Morris, Show Business Weekly

Lincoln green clothes, “Merry Men,” and bows and arrows can only mean one thing: Robin Hood. Written by Daniel John Kelley, Robin Hood: Prince of… Monsters! is the second program in Mainspring Collective’s Monster Literature — a children’s theater series that will continue in monthly episodes — which follows 12-year-old Benjy Bleeglehorn (Jenna Weinberg) and her sidekick, Bravo Kirkwood (Aaron Matteson), as they try to save the world’s most revered works of literature from the evil Zorlan Morlan, Lord of Tears (Owen Scott).

As in Monster Literature’s first production, Twas the Night Before…Monsters!, Robin Hood’s storyline is simple, as are its messages of kindness, forgiveness and courage. Zorlan Morlan puts a spell on Robin Hood (Mike Green), and suddenly, the once gutsy English hero is transformed into a coward who fears everything from the trees around him to the ground he walks on. It’s up to Benjy and Bravo to help him rediscover what it means to be a hero.

The folks at Mainspring Collective have clearly sought to improve the Monsterseries, with this installment more mindful of its young audience. As in English folklore, Robin Hood is dubbed a hero in this production, but, appropriately, no mention is made of his well-known kleptomaniacal tendency to steal from the rich and give to the poor. (It might be challenging to explain to five- and seven-year-olds why Robin Hood is considered a hero when he steals, an activity parents no doubt teach their kids is wrong.) Unlike in the first production, Robin Hood seeks the help of its young audience members, who are asked to shout “Oh, No!” whenever they hear the words “Archery Contest” during the play. All of the characters, from Robin Hood to Zorlan Morlan and Benjy, have enough charisma to sustain the audience’s attention. Maya Baldwin, who plays Zorlan Morlan’s Monster Messenger, elicits the most giggles with her gruff voice, depleted bugle horn, and awkward toddle. (read more…)

The scenic (Theresa Rivera), lighting (Dave Monroy) and sound design (Nick Moore), much like the production as a whole, are basic yet imaginative. As in Twas the Night Before, Julia Mancini’s costumes are effortlessly inspired, cleverly making use of household items, paper and plastic, and Robin Hood looks semi-sophisticated in Lincoln green attire. With these touches, Mainspring Collective clearly understands the idea that less is more — a concept many children’s productions have yet to master.

nytheatre.com review

Dan Kitrosser · February 14, 2010

Well, Zorlan Morlan is at it again, and this time not even Robin Hood and his band of merry men are a match for Zorlan’s Monsters as they continue to invade our most precious books in Robin Hood: Prince of … Monsters, the latest of installment of “Monster Literature,” Mainspring Collective’s hilarious and action-packed children series now playing at the Brooklyn Lyceum.

For those of you who have yet to witness these maniacal monsters, the premise is simple: In the future, monster megalomaniac Zorlan Morlan (Owen Scott) has decided that the only way to defeat humanity is by injecting monsters into their most prized pieces of literature, thereby changing the morals of mankind. But he meets his match every time, when heroine Benjy Bleeglehorn (Jenna Weinberg) and her trusty sidekick Bravo Kirkwood (Aaron Matteson) fight back, jumping into the stories and teaching the monsters about friendship, loyalty and bravery. I enjoyed the first installment ‘Twas the Night Before…Monsters! and so I had to come back and see the second. As a monster might say, Me Glad I Did!

Robin Hood, known for his bravery, is anything but in this version, penned by Daniel John Kelley. Zorlan Morlan has Robin Hood petrified to the point where, in the form of a wimpy and adorable Mike Green, Robin can’t seem to do much of anything, let alone rob the rich and feed the poor. The kids howled as Robin Hood seemed to be afraid of the most trivial things, from the floor to the papier-mache trees. Channeling Ghostbusters‘ Annie Potts is Maya Baldwin as Zorlan’s assistant, Monster Messenger, and at each appearance her dry lines (like “I do it for the dental insurance”) give the adults something to look forward to as well as push the story forward. As always, Benjy and Bravo are there to pull Robin Hood back together and in this installment, there is some wonderful chemistry between the two actors as Bravo laments his sidekick status and Benjy applauds him for his bravery. These real relationships, amidst the fantasy of monsters and hijinks of farce, really keep the kids engaged and the story moving forward. All children’s shows, no matter how bright and flashy, need to keep it real and in a couple of choice moments like this and the reconciliation with Zorlan Morlan at the end, “Monster Literature” does just that. (Read the rest of the review here…)

‘Twas the Night Before…MONSTERS!

nytheatre.com review written by Dan Kitrosser · December 13, 2009

It’s the holiday season, and you know what that means. Santa? Presents? Good tidings and cheer? Wrong, wrong, wrong. In a malicious attempt to thwart the most wonderful time of the year, Zorlan Morlan has invaded Clement Clarke Moore’s “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and thrown in some greedy, mouse-eating, holiday-hating monsters! But don’t worry, our heroine Benjy Bleeglehorn is here to save the day in ‘Twas the Night Before…Monsters!, the hilarious, action-packed first episode of Monster Literature by Daniel John Kelley at the Brooklyn Lyceum. I’ll let you know right now, if you are a parent, if you are a child, if you are a person like me who enjoys actors having a whole lot of fun, you’ll brave the cold weather that still penetrates inside the walls of the Lyceum (bring a coat, hat and scarf!) and make it a point to see every episode of Monster Literature.

The series, which is brought to us all by Mainspring Collective and the Brooklyn Lyceum, features Benjy Bleeglehorn, her dashingly dim-witted sidekick Bravo Kirkwood, and their nemesis, the evil sorcerer Zorlan Morlan, as Zorlan goes through literature, myths, and folktales and monster-izes them. The show begins with Zorlan Morlan (the terrific Owen Scott) as he plots his destruction of mankind’s holiday spirit and then quickly segues into what will be the Monster Literature Theme Song, a techno-story-mime-dance number, that lets you know right away the writer, designers, directors, and actors are here to have fun. We are then flown to Earth in the year 2009 where Benjy (the energetic Jenna Weinberg) discovers that no one seems to share her holiday spirit. As she re-reads “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” she finds that it has been rewritten to include monsters behaving badly. Marching through the book with Bravo (the humorous Aaron Matteson), we get to meet those sordidly silly creatures, and in some hilarious twists and turns, Benjy convinces the monsters to join in the holiday spirit, to the point where one monster is brought to tears saying, “Me so emotional!” This foils Zorlan Morlan’s plans, but, as he makes clear by the end of the show, he’s not done wreaking havoc on our stories, and Benjy Bleeglehorn knows she is going to have to fight him again. The monsters, as played by Mark DeFrancis, Laine Bonstein, and Nia Fairweather, are great fun, and Jimmy Juste, as a most convincing and over-the-top Santa Claus, made me laugh from the moment he walked on stage.

Playwright Kelley has crafted a show that will educate as well as entertain, but more credit is due to him, co-directors Hilary Krishnan and Dara Malina, and Mainspring Collective for avoiding the usual pitfalls of children’s theatre—the show is fun-filled but not saccharine, the story is easy to follow but not overly expository, the characters are broadly drawn but not two-dimensional. Nick Moore’s fantastically futuristic sound design punctuates each scene with unexpected and much appreciated doses of high energy and the production design, by Shawn Rice and Diana Wright, which features a simple but purposed set and some brilliant muppet-caliber monsters, brings you entirely into the world of the show while sill letting your imagination fill in some blanks.

In Monster Literature, Mainspring Collective and the Brooklyn Lyceum have given us an exciting new gift that will keep giving for the rest of the year and I suggest you get in the holiday spirit and see the show.  Read the full review here.

www.showbusinessweekly.com, review by Tanisia Morris

Clement Clarke Moore’s classic Christmas poem, “Twas The Night Before Christmas,” has been revamped with a unique twist in Twas The Night Before… Monsters! The latest production from the Mainspring Collective, the play is part of Monster Literature, a new children’s theater series that will continue in monthly episodes.

Written by Daniel John Kelley, the series follows the adventures of 12-year-old Benjy Bleeglehorn (Jenna Weinberg) as she struggles to save humanity and the world’s most esteemed works of literature from the evil Zorlan Morlan, Lord of Tears in the year 3088 (quite the task for a grade-schooler). In this holiday-themed episode, The Lord of Tears (Owen Scott) and his partner in crime Sugar Plum Monster (Laine Bonstein) vow to destroy the spirit of the holidays by defiling Moore’s precious text. A chirpy Benjy and her preppy sidekick Bravo Kirkwood (Aaron Matteson) come to the rescue with quirky songs and messages of peace to help the monsters (Nia Fairweather and Mark DeFrancis) rediscover the spirit of the holidays and turn from their wicked ways.

All the roles are played with an apt amount of silliness, but Fairweather’s comical husky voice earns more than a good laugh or two. The cast members, who sport some questionable eco-friendly costumes, seem to quietly demand that their young audience use their imaginations (The Lord of Tears’ crown is made using a food strainer while Sugar Plum Monster wears an outfit made entirely out of shredded paper and plastic bags). As in most children’s productions, there is a transparent lesson to be learned: No matter the circumstance, always be kind. And who better to deliver that message than Jolly old St. Nick himself. Toward the end of the play, Santa (Jimmy Juste) makes an appearance in a clever scene that has an overjoyed Lord of Tears hopping on his lap and eagerly awaiting his gift despite his wrongdoings — perhaps to illustrate an important message of forgiveness, which might fly right over the heads of Monsters’ young audience.