Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day packs a punch at the Coterie Theatre

Okay, you know you’ve been there. You wake up in the morning and you have chewing gum in your hair. Then you trip on a skateboard getting out of bed, and accidentally drop your sweater in the sink while the water is running. You don’t get a prize in your box of cereal at breakfast…and, well, your terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day just keeps getting worse from here on out.

Maybe you haven’t experienced this exact chain of events, but I’m sure you know how young Alexander feels when he declares that his day is turning out so rotten that he wants to move to Australia. We’ve all been there.

And maybe that’s why Judith Viorst’s delightful book (written in 1972) has survived all these years. The adults who read this story aloud to preschoolers can identify just as strongly with Alexander’s feelings of gloom and doom as the kids do. And the message is clear: “It’s okay to feel bummed-out about the way your day is going. You are not alone.”

When the Coterie Theatre decided to tackle this book, you can be sure that director Missy Koonce took pains to make sure that the ensuing production would resonate for all the adults in the audience accompanying their offspring. The result is a genuinely entertaining musical for all ages, complete with lines that only the grown-ups will get.

You wouldn’t think that a show with the theme of a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day would be a light-hearted romp, but this musical is surprisingly upbeat, thanks to the high energy of the talented young performers---KC Comeaux, Jessalyn Kincaid, Steven Eubank, Emily Shackelford, Francisco Villegas, and Price Messick. Three of these actors pull double duty with dual roles, but Martin Buchanan (as George/Father/Mrs. Dickens/Dr. Fields/Shoe Salesperson) is unbelievably gifted as he shifts, chameleon-like, from one juicy part to another. His version of Mrs. Dickens, the schoolmarm (who scolds Alexander for being “too creative” when he hands in a blank piece of paper in Art Class, telling her that it’s a picture of an “invisible castle”) is side-splittingly hilarious. I’m not kidding. You will laugh your sides off.

The set, crafted by Jordan Janota, is reminiscent of Andy Warhol paintings. The bright, bold colors, and in-your-face designs rival anything you’d find inside a Crayola store.

I enjoyed the musical numbers, especially “If I Were In Charge of the World,” but it was the enthusiasm of this youthful cast that really brought them to life. The “soft-shoe” number, “Shoes,” was particularly well-executed, thanks to the ebullience of Buchanan. (And was it my imagination, or was there a little bit of flirting going on between that Shoe Salesperson and Alexander’s mother?)

When Alexander’s mother (played admirably by Jessalyn Kincaid) gets home from the shoe store with new shoes for everyone, her husband (Buchanan again—how does he manage such instantaneous costume changes?) compliments her on the new shoes she’s wearing. “Oh, these old things?” she shrugs. This kind of all-too-familiar repartee between husband and wife helps ground the play, and also gives adults in the audience something else to relate to.

Anyone looking for a moralistic tale (“You shouldn’t grumble about your lot”) is in for a disappointment. In the end, when Alexander’s mother tucks him into bed after his Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, she espouses the same motto as another literary heroine, Scarlett O’Hara: “Tomorrow is another day.”

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day runs through December 31 at The Coterie Theatre, Crown Center. Call 816-474-6552, or go to www.coterietheatre.org.