Published on: Wednesday, April 22, 2009

By David Cannon, Sentinel Arts Critic

Now in Bethesda – singing goats!

The goats are just one of the highlights in Imagination Stage’s current production of “Heidi.”  When most people think of Heidi, they have vague recollections of an ancient Shirley Temple movie or (here I date myself) an infamous made for TV movie that interrupted the final minutes of the 1968 Jets/Raiders game that caused angry viewers to inundate NBC’s switchboards.

The Johanna Spyri novel is still a great story but it is a Victorian children’s novel, which means it can be very moralizing in places, and surprisingly dark at times. The new musical features a book by Martha King de Silva that sticks closely to the plot of the novel while kicking out a lot of the Victorian stuffiness. The music by Joan Cushing is lovely and helps move the plot along quickly.

The plot was tailor made for Shirley Temple’s Depression era persona. Heidi is an orphan dumped on her sullen grandfather’s doorsteps without notice. Heidi learns to love the Alps, and her optimistic personality helps her make friends and win over the love of her embittered grandfather. Later, Heidi gets taken away again the big city to help a young invalid girl. While she makes new friends, Heidi desperately misses her home back in the Alps.

Not a complicated plot, and it can almost be reduced to “country good/city bad.” What makes the Imagination Stage production so successful is that director Janet Stanford keeps events upbeat without becoming too saccharine or cloying. It helps that Tara Giordano plays Heidi with a fine balance of naïveté and warmth, and that Terrence Currier plays the Grandfather as more embittered than angry and does not change too quickly. This makes the situation believable and the happy ending feels well earned.

Good support from Chris Wilson as the moody shepherd boy Peter and Kate Guesman as the invalid Clara, who gradually shows some spirit. Heidi finds a formidable if comic adversary in Sandra Murphy’s Frau Rottenmeier (cannot expect too much help from a name like that) and a helpful ally in Doug Wilder’s Sebastian. Anna Marie Pinto also does well as Heidi’s self centered Aunt Detie, as shadowy in her motivations here as in the novel.

Members of the ensemble play the gossipy town folk and also double with the goat puppets, which are always a delight when they show up and even join in on the occasional chorus. The ingenious set design by Milagros Ponce de Leon suggests the Alps and has moveable stairs that allow actors to climb up the mountain and then fold down for a mountain slope. 

My only criticism is that the music tends to sound the same after a while, with many variations on European “oom-pah-pah” rhythms. Still, De Silva and Cushing have managed to keep the heart of Spyri’s novel intact while dusting off all those Victorian cobwebs that have accumulated over the past century.  That’s not as simple as it sounds, and the result is an enjoyable new look at a beloved if somewhat overlooked children’s classic.

“Heidi” continues at Imagination Stage in Bethesda through May 17. Imagination Stage has also announced their 2009-2010 season, including Disney’s “Mulan,” a new adaptation of Peter and the Wolf, and a summer repertory dealing with pirates. Aargh!

For more information, call (301) 280-1660 or go online to http://www.imaginationstage.org.

3 Stars