A ‘Quite Contrary’ Musical

“Mary-Mary Quite Contrary,” the Family Theatre production at the Santa Monica Playhouse is deceptively titled. An amiably convoluted, “you can make a difference” musical, it is aimed at older siblings.

Twelve-year-old Mary-Mary (Emily Teplin), about to turn 13, unhappily feels she’s “too old for toys, too young for boys.” Her single mom is a busy, spandexed aerobics instructor; Grandma remarried and moved to Florida.

Enter a most unusual baby-sitter, M. Goose (Rachel Galper). She discerns Mary-Mary’s emotional state in one of many bubbly musical word-plays: “eccentricity, confusion . . . humor, precocity, independence, generosity. . . .”

Mary-Mary meets Jack and Jill, Polly and Sukey and Little Bo-Peep who need belief to survive, while M. Goose updates some nursery rhymes: “Are you somnolent, sibling John?” and “London Bridge has structural fatigue.”

Evelyn Rudie, who co-wrote and directed with Chris DeCarlo, has fun with music and lyrics, giving them her trademark Gilbert and Sullivan-style appeal, and there’s quality in Scott Heineman’s set, Ashley Hayes’ costumes and in James Cooper’s lighting and sound.

It’s something of a leap, however, from nursery rhymes to the consciousness-raising Mary-Mary undergoes after helping the nursery rhyme folk: “People’s rights, homeless plights . . . save the whales, fix the jails . . . it’s an US world, not a ME world.”