Pop Smart - Synchronicity monkeys around with Junie B. Jones

(Image courtesy of Synchronicity Performance Group)

Junie B. Jones can elicit both happiness and trepidation in the hearts of parents. I know at least one mom who wants to take her kids to see Synchronicity Performance Group’s Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business!, a family musical based on the popular chapter book by Barbara Park. She may not be able to get in, though: Last I heard, tickets were nearly gone for the production, playing at 7 Stages Back Space theater through March 16.

Another mom friend, however, emphatically does not want to take her girls to the show, because she finds Junie B. Jones to be a bad influence. I appreciate that argument, so when I took my daughter last weekend, I knew we were running the risk that she could pick up a bad habit. Funny, bratty “anti-heroic” girl characters like Kay Thompson’s Eloise and Ian Falconer’s Olivia can thoroughly amuse all readers, but also give your kids some regrettable ideas for back talk or mischief.

Synchronicity’s Junie B. Jones features adult actors playing the kids and grown-up roles, with Bethany Lind portraying the hyperactive kindergartner of the title. Lind’s Junie comes across partly like a female Pee Wee Herman, partly like Gilda Radner’s “Judy Miller Show” character. The character has definite self-control problems, but fortunately my daughter hasn’t turned into a Junie wannabe. (Yet. Knock wood.)

Junie B. Jones offers mild pleasures, but doesn’t reach the level of the Synchronicity Family series’ superb holiday show A Year with Frog and Toad or last year’s more modestly enjoyable Miss Nelson Is Missing (another show adapted by Junie B. Jones playwright Joan Cushing).