Bristol Riverside Theater Review: 'Big: The Musical'

"Big,” the 1996 musical taken from a 1988 film, stands out among tuners made from hit movies because it’s good. At the Bristol Riverside Theatre, where it runs through April 14, it’s real good.

Real, real good.

Perfect, in fact.

Blockbusters like “The Producers” and “Hairspray” aside, musicals made from popular films have become the definition of theatrical mediocrity. Their creators seem more interested in trading on the film’s brand, its familiar title, than writing a piece that serves the material. Books are dull, derivative affairs with jokes that went out with the commonest of the ’60s sitcoms, and scores are veritable trash, doggerel that lacks the sentiment, wit, and poetry of Oscar Hammerstein and the great lyricists of musical theater’s classic age.

“Big” defeats all of the slovenliness that plagues the average 21st century musical. It is not a work of art, but it is an example of brains and craft teaming up to make a smart, engaging entertainment.

In “Big,” you see the mark of the professional and not the hack.

And why shouldn’t it be? Its creators have great track records as individuals and as a team. Jerome Weidman’s script avoids the triteness and pandering to please so prevalent today. His book is smart and to the point. It’s simultaneously funny and warm. It deftly handles the obvious complications of a 13-year-old boy suddenly being forced to confront an adult world, for example obtaining and holding a job. It is equally clever in adding other plot twists, such as the 13-year-old in the body of a 30-something having a romantic relationship with a woman of his supposed age or having to deal with office intrigue designed to scuttle his career.

Luckier yet is the score by Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire. Maltby is an excellent lyricist. You hear the shrewd rhyme in his songs, appreciate the way he adds sarcasm to the lyric, and marvel at the clever way he ties back to incidents mentioned within Weidman’s book. Shire, an Oscar-winning composer who can write in several styles, supplies tunes that don’t sound as if they’ve come out of a synthesizer or mirror the popular rhythms of the day. Most current musicals would kill for a song like “Stop Time,” a mother’s comment on her child getting older and more independent, or “Coffee, Black,” a lively production number that hearkens back to sophisticated days of Cy Coleman, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green.

Weidman, Maltby, and Shire have crafted instead of cobbled. They wrote a show that works, and Ken Kaissar and his cast at Bristol make the most of it.

Kaissar, who can come up with more theatrical ideas in two minutes that most people can muster in a lifetime, is admirably disciplined in his direction. He has found the Goldilocks formula. Every choice he makes in terms of comedy or theatrical business comes out just right. This includes tenderer moments and sequences of genuine drama.

Kaissar has also surrounded himself with a cast that brings his production to vivid life. From Remi Tuckman, who plays the lead character, Josh Baskin, as an adolescent, to Charles Osborne, Erika Strasburg, Jackie Washam, and Keith Lee Grant as the most important adults in Josh’s life — Osborne as the magically grown Josh himself — Kaissar’s company adroitly makes everything come together in a way that involves in real situations that go beyond the main gimmick of the story, a boy posing as an adult.

Charles Osborne is endearing as the older Josh. Throughout his performance, Osborne retains an infectious boyishness that not only draws us to Josh but keeps track of the teenage person transformed by magic into a grown man.

Osborne’s expressions are wide eyed and naïve. Even as Josh thrives in his adult environment and begins to enjoy vestiges of a more mature existence, Osborne keeps the 13-year-old in the forefront.

It’s a bold choice, and at the Bristol Riverside, a successful one.

It also sets up a pointed contrast to the sophisticated, ambitious colleague and later girlfriend played by Erika Strasburg, who not only plays her role with the coolest of sangfroid but sings Shire’s score with gusto.

With Osborne and Strasburg, Kaissar sets up a contrast, and conflict, that complements. The difference in the two characters’ understanding creates a tension that is amusing while making you nervous Josh’s whole world is about to fall apart from a false move that gives him away as someone on the brink of his teens.

Brightness prevails throughout Kaissar’s production. It’s happy and colorful in a way that mirrors Josh’s enthusiasm and emphasizes the fun of being in a milieu full of creativity and toys. (Even when one touchy adult says, more than once, “Don’t play with that. It’s a toy.”)

Remi Tuckman pitches in with his authentic portrayal of a 13-year-old and a beautiful voice, far different from the adenoidal wailing you’ll hear from the moppets in “Frozen” at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music.

The kid that steals the day is Kalel Carrera as Josh’s best friend, Billy.

Carrera is the definition of natural. His Billy is the kid who looks at other kids and says, “Sheesh, what idiots. I’d better step in and save the day.” While having all the traits of a newly minted adolescent, Carrera’s Billy is a whirlwind of decisive action and common sense.

Carrera teams well with Osborne and Tuckman and has a sweet scene with Josh’s worried mother, played by Jackie Washam.

Washam has some of the most important moments in “Big.” She plays a woman who finds a strange grown man where her teenage son should be and who must fret about that son’s safety even after being assured several times that Josh is “all right” and will return.

As with Osborne’s balancing act, Washam finds a way to keep Josh’s mom levelheaded and moving forward while conveying the emotion any mother with a mysteriously missing child would feel.

Washam is particularly moving when she performs “Big’s” best song, “Stop Time,” in which a mother yearns to preserve her child at different stages in his life while realizing the child has to grow and go off on his own. Kaissar and Washam build some time around the song, so it can breathe, and its sentiment can bring texture to the comedy that dominates most of “Big.”

Any time you see Stephen Casey listed as a choreographer, you know you’ll see some spirited dancing that fits the moment and tenor of a scene. “Big” is no exception. Casey puts his chorus through some energetic and humorous paces. One of the standouts is Shannon Sharpe, who appears in several guises and costumes and commands attention without pulling focus. Sharpe also does well as the more mature girl on whom Josh, age 13, has a crush.

Keith Lee Grant exudes joyfulness as the head of the toy company that hires Josh as a consultant. Scott Langdon and Dominic Sannelli join the group of reliables whose participation in a show is always a good sign. They are joined by Noah Lee Hayes, Peter Kirby, and Amanda Hunter-Finch to form a great nucleus that goes smoothly from named roles as Josh’s colleagues to a variety of bit parts.

Christopher Swader and Justin Swader’s giant Rubik’s cube of a set adds to the color and gaiety of Kaissar’s production. The Swaders fill space wittily, whatever the setting, while never making anything seem cluttered or excessive. Linda B. Stockton’s costumes match the age, taste, and experience of the characters. Mathew J. Weisgable’s lighting is effective, especially in “Big’s” mystical moments. Ryk Lewis’ sound design was at exactly the right pitch, providing clarity by resisting a modern penchant to amp up too high.

Big: The Musical, Bristol Riverside Theatre, 120 Radcliffe Street, Bristol, Pennsylvania. Through Sunday, April 14. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday. $67 to $65. www.brtstage.org or 215-785-0100.