Oh My Dear!

Edwina Spoonapple is back in the big apple at the DR2 Theatre for another round of vying for a seat in the Kalamazoo Advice-a-palooza Festival in Dear Edwina (December 11-February 15), a musical comedy written by Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler. When a talent scout from the festival visits her hometown of Paw Paw, Michigan, Edwina and her friends launch into a musical advice-giving show, live from the family garage.

Famous designer Isaac Mizrahi narrates Sergei Prokofiev’s charming children’s classic, Peter & The Wolf (December 10-14), as Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents a brand new special collaboration between the visual and the performing arts. The short performance will feature New York City Opera’s Music Director George Manahan, who will conduct the prestigious Juilliard Ensemble, and New Orleans based art collective YA/YA (Young Aspirations Young Artists), under the artistic direction of alumni Rondell Crier and Rontherin Ratliff, will create an installation of sculptures representing all the characters in the story.

Phoenix Theatre Ensemble will be be putting their own twist on another classic story, Goldilocks & The Three Bears (December 5-12). Find out what happens when Goldilocks gets too close to the bear family secret — which is in their porridge. If you still haven’t quite gotten a healthy dose of fairytale morality, ArcLight Theatre will be presenting a personal favorite, The Emperor’s New Clothes (December 4-20), a romp full of jokes and songs that highlight the lessons of this classic.

For a more pensive family outing, try Peter Mills and Cara Reichel’s Evergreen (December 19-January 3). In her desolate desert homeland, Maya listens every winter to her grandmother’s stories of a world that used to be, filled with snow and trees. Because she’s a natural adventurer, headstrong Maya decides to embarks on a fantastic adventure to find the Earth’s last living evergreens and bring back proof. Back on the brighter side of life, join Axis Theatre Company for their production of Seven in One Blow, Or The Brave Little Kid (December 4-20) the story of a young boy who kills seven flies with a single swat. When he makes a belt to commemorate the event, enscribed “Seven In One Blow,” people start to misinterpret it, giving him difficult tasks based on this faulty presumption.

Also on tap this month are the New Victory Theater’s Chestnuts Roasting On The Flaming Idiots (December 4-January 3), an outrageous mash-up of juggling and comedy from The Flaming Idiots; Bread and Puppet Theater’s Dirt Cheap Money Circus (December 2-13), a family friendly circus ripe with commentary on our current socio-political realities; A Jolly Gilbert & Sullivan Grand Tour (December 12), a trip to the world of Gilbert & Sullivan, featuring appearances by some of their most heroic, gentle, scary, pompous, and beloved characters; and an orchestral performance, The Little Orchestra Society Lolli-Pops Fall Series: Things That Go Bang! (December 5-6), performed at John Jay College, and featuring tunes composed by Anderson, Tchaikovsky, Britten and Gershwin.