'PUS IN BOOTS': IMAGINITIVE WIT AND WHIMSY (PLAY REVIEW)

When members of the University Players look back on the roles they played in school, the guess is that many will think most fondly of Southeast's annual children's theater productions. Watching "Puss in Boots," you can see the imaginations thrumming both onstage and in the audience. The witty wordplay and slapstick antics in Don Garner's latest adaptation for the University Theatre give everyone plenty of room to work out.

The play will be presented at 7 tonight in the Family Night performance and at 10 a.m. Saturday in a Family Matinee. Both performances are at Rose Theatre on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University.

"Puss in Boots" follows the antics of a cat, Puss (Regina Hagen), who helps her master, Jacques (Adam Rigg) overcome the plans of an evil wizard, Monsieur Charlatan (Bart Elfrink), and win the beautiful Princess Monique, the Unique (Meredith Wilson).

Garner has sprinkled the story with lines kids will love -- "He is one bad cookie" -- and has updated it by incorporating a magic computer that allows the evil wizard to view others' actions simply by typing in the correct web address.

More magic is devised by costume and makeup designer Megwyn Sanders, whose whimsical creations give this production a professional sheen.

Hagen is cuddly and cute as Puss. She also combines natural physical skills and great charm into a performance that will have all the kids wanting to take her home -- even those who don't like cats. So it is all the more upsetting when M. Charlatan rants, "I proclaim a double whammy hex on that no good fuzzy wuzzy."

Elfrink is wickedly funny as Charlatan. His French accent is in full Sellers mode. "Ah have ze power of transformation," he boasts, and he isn't kidding.

His vileness extends to his servant, a "bit of baggage, ... a knobby-legged wonder" called Baba Yaga. Becky Morgan's boa-bedecked Baba Yaga is the queen of histrionics, a vamp who comforts herself with spontaneous musical interludes.

Wilson and Rigg are fine as the romantic duo, as is Daniel Campisi as King Henrique, Monique's father.

Clowns Ashley Leirer, Gelanie Lockhart and Kathryn Waterhout introduce the play and even help out with a mid-performance plot review. Julie Stoverink has a cameo as the Lion.

Dennis C. Seyer directs with humor and good will and designed the sets and lights as well. Ellen Seyer is the vocal director. Holley Hargraves is the production stage manager.

"Puss in Boots" is plenty of fun. And that M. Charlatan is one bad cookie.