Mini Reviews

TREASURE ISLAND

(At Round House Theatre through Dec. 30)

Alas, alack and shiver me timbers, this new adaptation moors too sedately in the shallows of Robert Louis Stevenson's famous pirate novel. The result is a staging that relentlessly conveys plot but stints on adventure-story dynamism. Aside from Mark Mineart's pleasingly rough-and-ready Long John Silver, the buccaneers in this version of the oft-dramatized yarn seem bland and bleached out. The little ones you've brought along may be somewhat engaged by the production's gruff customers and the let's-pretend approach to swordplay. More generally, though, the gusto-deficient evening revels only very mildly in the unfolding of dastardly betrayals and heroic rescues. Director Blake Robison's matter-of-fact presentation of this new adaptation by Ken Ludwig provides no thrills -- merely exposition. This is often a pitfall in trying to compress elaborate literary works for the stage. Narrated by the young hero, Jim Hawkins (Marybeth Fritzky), this "Treasure Island" paints in broad strokes on the expansive canvas of Stevenson's late-19th-century novel without giving us a vivid portrait of virtually any of the colorful individuals who figure in it.

-- Peter Marks

* TWICE UPON A TIME

(At Imagination Stage through Jan. 13)

They might not develop interest in the Iowa caucuses, but children 4 and older can absorb a little political consciousness -- of the gentlest and most abstract sort -- at "Twice Upon a Time: Dr. Seuss' the Lorax and the Emperor's New Clothes." This sweet and funny musical by the Tony-winning duo of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty nods gracefully at leadership issues and environmentalism, by way of Hans Christian Andersen and the author of "The Cat in the Hat." Under the direction of Nick Olcott, a cast of five gambols through the show's civic-minded whimsy with a grace that's likely to win both the kid and parent vote. As the title indicates, this is a loosely linked double bill, the first section -- basically a long musical number -- being an outtake from Ahrens and Flaherty's 2000 "Seussical." "The Emperor's New Clothes" then retells Andersen's famous fable, but with a twist: Emperor Marcus (Danny Tippett) is a 14-year-old bookworm who's more than a little flummoxed by his royal responsibilities.

-- C.W.

Continuing

ALONE IT STANDS