My overall impression
Super Sidekick: The Musical.
This review first appeared on ArtsBeatLA.com
Review by Pauline Adamek.
Featuring superhero action and mischievous ninja koalas (!) Gregory Crafts’ kids musical play Super Sidekick: The Musical (with original music by Michael Gordon Shapiro) is a lot of gentle fun.
The heart-warming show follows a heroic duo BlackJack (an uncharismatic and under-rehearsed Noah Butler) and his teen sidekick and wanna-be hero Inky (Scott Sharma) as they hunt down the dastardly Sorcerer Slurm (Shawn Cahill) to the Cave of Doom in order to rescue the teenaged Princess.
The much put-upon Inky finds he has to take charge after the bumbling, irritable and conceited BlackJack also gets trapped in Slurm’s lair.
Shapiro’s songs are fairly ordinary (in fact, the transition music between the scenes was of a noticeably higher quality) and the acting and direction strictly amateur, but Sharma as Inky truly won the hearts of the small children in the audience with his sweet and plaintive songs and pure voice, especially “If I were a hero too.”
Cute show for kids and undiscerning adults.
