ON THEATER: Laguna kids tackle ‘Sleeping Beauty’

“The Sleeping Beauty” is coming to the Laguna Playhouse, but its director cautions young audiences that it’s not exactly the story produced by the people with Mickey Mouse ears.

“We are not dealing with a Disney version of the story,” says Kelly Herman, whose title at the playhouse is associate director of youth theater, education and outreach. “So the dark elements are, well, scary.”

The Youth Theater production, opening a week from tonight and playing through May 18, is the stage version of the family classic adapted by Charlotte B. Chorpenning from the book by Charles Perrault. Perrault was born in 1628 and Chorpenning in 1872, so the show is, by definition, a golden oldie.

For those with sketchy memories, the story focuses on Princess Beauty, who’s cursed at her christening by a wicked fairy to fall into a deep sleep on her 16th birthday. She must await the kiss of a handsome prince to waken her.

“Can Prince Elano survive his confrontation with the forces of evil to rescue Beauty?” Herman teases. “Will Beauty ever wake and live happily ever after?” She’s not telling, but the answer seems quite apparent.

“I think that the story of ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ is difficult in regards to the darkness of the storytelling of Perrault and the adaptation by Chorpenning,” Herman notes. “It is the struggle between good and evil, life and death, bravery and cowardice, beginnings and endings.”

Following two evenings of previews, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., “The Sleeping Beauty” will open its regular engagement, playing Fridays at 7:40, Saturdays at 2 and 7:40 and Sundays at 1 and 5 p.m. Tickets may be reserved by calling the theater at (949) 460-8676.

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Coastline Pilot.