Review: THE FRESHEST SNOW WHYTE at Imagination Stage

Continuing his winning streak of taking classic fairy tales and turning them into hip-hop extravaganzas, writer/ director Psalmayne 24 has done it again with a futuristic take on Snow White. He has kicked our heroine into the year 3000, armed her with a graffiti device, and put her up against an evil uncle named Kanye East. The Freshest Snow Whyte at Imagination Stage may not be the familiar version of the fairy tale, but it's one you should really get to know.

As previously mentioned, we are in the year 3000 and Kanye East (Calvin McCullough) has a problem. His niece Snow Whyte (Katy Carkuff) is a renowned graffiti artist. In fact, she is so renowned that she is known as the freshest in the universe according to the Simon Cowell-like Mira (Jonathan Feurer). Kanye refuses to suffer a bruised ego. After all, he took in Snow Whyte when she was a baby and raised her. He gets an idea. Along with his robot 3Pac (Frank Britton), who has a mechanical glitch that causes him to freeze all the time, they drop Snow Whyte on the planet Palladium. The hope is that she won't be able to create graffiti masterpieces anymore and Kanye will become the freshest in the whole universe. Thanks to a couple of alien-type dwarf characters named K Rock and Pop Lock (Taylor Robinson and Louis Davis) Kanye's dream doesn't become a reality. Despite two attempts in a couple of outrageous disguises, nothing can tarnish the graffiti queen.

This hip-hop graffiti world is created by a bunch of very talented artists. Richard Ouellette's set includes an ingenious way of depicting the factory where K Rock and Pop Lock are employed. Likewise, projection designer Tevodross "Teo" Melchishua Williams work features very attractive space landscapes. Dylan Uremovich's lighting and Jeanette Christensen's costumes enhance our experience to the fullest.

The musical scoring by musical beat genius Nick "the 1da" Hernandez ranges from hip hop to jazz and kicks the show into another universe even more than it already is.

Performance wise, Psalmayne 24 has assembled a stellar cast that knocks his material out of the park.

Katy Carkuff, as the fly graffiti queen Snow Whyte, shows us once again why she is one of the best actresses the area has to offer. Her performance is as strong as any you'll see.

Calvin McCullough's performance as Kanye East is both evil and hilarious. You must see him dressed as a supposed female talent competition contestant. It's a sight to behold.

Frank Britton as 3Pac is always a welcome sight on any stage. Even when his character malfunctions, the outcome is on the plus side.

Taylor Robinson and Louis Davis are hysterical as K Rock and Pop Lock. Thanks to their alien gibberish that you have to decipher and body movements they are definitely not the grumpy old men that you know from the Disney version of the story.

Jonathan Feurer as Mira makes the most of his limited stage time.

The Freshest Snow Whyte at Imagination Stage is definitely one show that the whole family can enjoy. Fairy tales with a groove; it doesn't get much better than that.

Runnng Time: 85 minutes with one intermission on the weekends. 70 minutes with no intermission for school performances.

The Freshest Snow Whyte runs through March 18, 2017 at Imagination Stage which is located at 4908 Auburn Avenue in Bethesda, Maryland. For tickets, click here.

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