Free To Be, you and Mulan

On two successive Saturdays, my daughter and I saw Free To Be... You and Me at Synchronicity Theatre and Disney’s Mulan at the Alliance Children’s Theatre. It wasn’t until after the fact that I realized that both kid-oriented plays delivered the same basic message. Nearly every piece of children’s entertainment created in my lifetime seems to hinge on the moral “Believe in yourself,” but Free to Be and Mulan both apply that adage more specifically to identity and gender roles of boys and girls. And while both prove to be perfectly entertaining, they each can look a little dated in reflection of the time period of their source material.

A generational touchstone comparable to “Schoolhouse Rock,” Free To Be You and Me originated in 1972 as a record album, ABC After School Special and illustrated book, credited to actress “Marlo Thomas and Friends” (who include Carl Reiner, Judy Blume and Shel Silverstein). On stage, Free To Be could be a jukebox musical (or maybe a juicebox musical), linking together famous songs like “Parents Are People.” The action follows four children (Corey Bradberry, Tracy Vaden Moore, John Reed and Caitlin Smith) who meet as babies (i.e., puppets) in a playpen, then get a little older, sing, play with oversized toys and... well, that’s about it. Synchronicity’s set features a working seesaw that turns on its axis and proves both hypnotic and dizzying.