Bad monkey, good heart. That's Curious George, a delinquent yet endearing creature who's surrounded by an admiring crew of enablers who encourage him to run amok.
He gets away with it because his mischievous adventures tend to (just barely) disguise the underlying message that describes his approach to life: Think of others first.
George, the star of popular children's books by H.A. Rey and Margret Rey (first published in 1941), is an orphaned chimpanzee -- or maybe he's a monkey without a tail -- brought from his ancestral home in Africa by the peculiar Man with the Yellow Hat to live like a celebrity on N Avenue in New York.
Curious George: The Golden Meatball, with one 55-minute act, at least a dozen goofy songs, and an artfully chaotic ensemble cast, opened Friday at Arkansas Arts Center Children's Theatre. It's the story of how George (played with squeaky nonverbal glee by Mackenzie Holtzclaw) and his pal Chef Pisghetti (Mark Hansen, plumply padded and wearing a Pinocchio-length nose and Rollie Fingers mustache) celebrate the neighborhood's annual Meatball Day by making the chef's unique meatballs for all-you-can-eaters.
But the crowds are distracted by Phinneas T. Lightspeed (Braxton Johnson, a true scene-stealer in white cowboy boots and a sequined sport coat), who is tempting them with his fast-cooking Meatballs-O-Matic machine, which behaves like a giant microwave. His motto: "Who's got time to spare?"
Chef Pisghetti, his ego sorely wounded, vows never to cook again -- until George, who temporarily abandons his penchant for chortling, clumsy dancing and throwing things -- schemes a way to get to Italy to enter the chef's meatballs in Rome's renowned Golden Meatball competition.
There's no logic to this wacky crowd-pleaser -- loaded with oddities like awful Italian accents, an exploration of the delights of bubble wrap, a suggestion that Rome's Coliseum has been moved recently, and the nonsensical notion that anybody would let a monkey loose in a kitchen -- but there's tons of entertainment.
Curious George: The Golden Meatball continues through Oct. 7 at Arkansas Arts Center Children's Theatre, Ninth and Commerce streets, Little Rock. More information is available by calling (501) 372-4000 or visiting arkansasartscenter.org.
Metro on 09/22/2018