If parents are interested in encouraging children to understand, appreciate and like musical theater, Disney may not be the perfect place to start. But his simple tales are geared for little ones. "101 Dalmatians," which opened yesterday at Stages St. Louis, fits its target audience, is nicely staged, runs only 45 minutes, and kept an audience amused. It will run through July 3.
The film, based on a book by Dodie Smith, first came around as an animated version in 1961, was reprised in 1996 with a live cast, led by Glenn Close as Cruella de Vil, dognapper to the stars of the fur coat trade. Leigh Wakeford plays the villain in Kirkwood, costumed to the nines by Brad Musgrove and displaying the most mesmerizing legs since the famous Betty Grable picture from World War II.
Darin Wood and Erin Kelley are Roger and Anita, real people who own Pongo (Sean Patrick Quinn) and Perdita (Deanna Aguinaga), walking, talking, singing, dancing dalmatians. Their pups attract Cruella, whose motto seems to be that no one can be too rich, too thin or own too many fur coats. She sends a pair of bumbling henchmen (John Flack and Jeffrey Scott Stevens) to kidnap the pups but the dogs foil the plot and everyone lives happily ever after at the Dalmatian Plantation, whose name provides a chance for a number of puns.
There are a lot of young people who sing and dance on stage, all wearing costumes with spots, and the grown-up actors have fun, too.
101 Dalmatians, a production of Stages St. Louis, will run at the Robert Reim Theatre through July 3
—Joe