Review: A FROGGY BECOMES at Open Fist Theatre Company

Middle school is hell. Everyone is bumbling through puberty, hormones are raging, no one knows what is going on. That isn’t to say it isn’t also a magical time of discovery and awakenings. And Aubrey “Bumpy” Diggs (Sandra Kate Burck) is experiencing the entire spectrum — through the lens of the garish excess of the ’80s, no less — in A FROGGY BECOMES, Becky Walhstrom’s raucous world premiere comedy at the Open Fist Theatre Company in Atwater Village.

Bumbling through seventh grade with her best friends, nerdy Rita (Carmella Jenkins) and overdeveloped Karen (Kyra Grace), Bumpy crushes on the resident cute boy, Alan (Tom Sys), enduring the taunts of her snotty older brother, Jimmy (Jeremy Guskin). On top of that, her mother (Johanna McKay) is having an affair with Father Angelo (Michael Lanahan) from their local church and her father (PETER BREITMAYER) is a literal ogre. On top of THAT, she has a project due for an upcoming science fair. Will she ever make it through to eighth grade?

Bumpy is a delightfully awkward cross between Jan in the Brady Bunch movies and Dawn Wiener from Todd Solondz’s 1995 indie classic Welcome to the Dollhouse. With braces, a lisp, and a colorful scrunchie holding back her rust-colored hair, she’s played with exactly the right combination of gusto, wonderment, and bafflement by Burck in a committed and egoless performance. Bumpy is scrappy and quirky and ebullient and grating and indefatigable. She’s what we all were in seventh grade.

Wahlstrom imbues A FROGGY BECOMES with an absurdism that is only complemented by the absurdism of the ’80s with the neons and the poofy hair and the synthesized music. Director Pat Towne elicits dynamic performances from the cast with Jenkins and Sys particular standouts, Jenkins’ Rita a lovable dork, and Sys’ Alan a lovable doofus. None of the actors take it too seriously while their characters take it so seriously like OHMYGOD. Being in on the joke is half the fun, but no one is ever making true fun of Bumpy. They’re just blundering through their own growing pains, flailing in the same pond.

Towne makes fantastic use of the stage with minimal sets — lawn chairs, a sofa, a refrigerator — wheeled in when necessary and back out when not. A screen used as a backdrop expands Bumpy’s larger world, whether it’s a night sky, her school, or a forest. Costume designer Mylette Nora brings the decade to vibrant life through period attire, both sending up the styles as well as lovingly portraying them. The outfit Bumpy’s father wears is part wardrobe and part puppet (courtesy puppet designer Joe Seely) and it perfectly represents what a monster he is, grotesque, flatulent, abusive, neglectful, alcoholic. It’s no wonder her mother wants to run off with a holy man. Classic ’80s tunes like Madonna’s “Like a Prayer,” Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science,” and Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” are used deftly both as background during scene changes as well as the fabric of Bumpy’s life.

Everything at 13 is 3D, surround sound, and Technicolor, and while Bumpy’s life is wildly over-the-top, it also always remains firmly grounded. When things become fantastical (and they do become fantastical), she and her family and friends are always relatable, and that is the true magic of the production.

A FROGGY BECOMES is performed at the Open Fist Theatre Company, 3269 Casitas Avenue, through April 13. Tickets are available at www.openfist.org and (323) 882-6912.

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