BWW Reviews: ADVENTURES OF A COMIC BOOK ARTIST Ka-POWS! Its Way Onto York Little Theatre Stage

Faster than a Shakespearian soliloquy, more powerful than a Pinter production, it's a bird, it's a plane – no, it's Pat Lyderson's (book/lyrics) and Wendy Wolf's (music) THE ADVENTURES OF A COMIC BOOK ARTIST, directed by Rebecca Wolf at York Little Theatre.  Shakespeare it isn't – this is a family musical, starring a senior high freshman, Stephen Baker, as Stanley Leonardo Sappovitz, Wonder Comics janitor and frustrated comic book artist, and third-grader Sarah Stark as DC Wunderman, the uber-capitalist publisher of Wonder Comics, unconvinced of Stanley's talents and determined to find a scheme to promote Wonder Comics to incredible sales heights.

Wunderman's solution?  A mail-order catalog has promised, absolutely guaranteed-to-work, powerful pens from Peloponnesia (hey kids, research that place for extra credit in history class!) that will cause anything drawn with them to come to life.  She tasks her artists to devise a new superhero and his sidekicks, unaware that the most colorful character, Dr. Shock Clock (Alex Wilkinson, whose portrayal is eerily and cheerily reminiscent of Mike Myers' Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers films), and his twelve Minutos, are in fact not superheroes but super villains.  Stanley's love interest, Viola (Ginny Peck), who just happens to be Wunderman's secretary, provides Stanley with his own powerful Peloponnesian pen, with which he sketches his own quartet of supers – the charismatic but narcissistic Star Guy (Austin O'Connell), the small but speedy Triple Time (Zach DePorter), the blissfully organic Blossom (Allison Thomas), whose uniform boasts plentiful magic flowers, and the grouchy but clever Wombat Woman (a terrific Vail Varone), whose superpower is the ability to burrow into any substance known to man.

When all else, including the Fabulous Four – the name for Stanley's super quartet – fails and three of the four heroes are kidnapped, along with DC Wunderman and her art staff, thanks to the devious Dr. Shock Clock's ability to stop time, and to freeze people in their tracks – Stanley and Viola are forced to resort to desperate measures to save the city from disaster.  In the best superhero tradition, all are rescued by a mysterious new superhero, whose identity is unknown to all, and Stanley returns to life as Wonder Comics' janitor… or does he?

Stephen Baker is a fine young stage talent, now in his twelfth show with YLT since 2007; originally a Lost Boy, her has starred as Bilbo Baggins in THE HOBBIT and as Henry in HENRY AND RAMONA.  He's a gift to local stage, with good stage presence, and an interest in continuing acting.  He plans, however, to study English rather than drama in college, with an eye to writing, rather than acting, as a career, "but being a movie star wouldn't be so bad, either," he admits.  ADVENTURES is close to being right up his alley in combining those interests, although "I'm not really a comic book fanatic" – his tastes run to science fiction and fantasy as preferred reading.  We hope to look forward to his continued presence on local stages for some time to come.

Sarah Stark, the very young DC Wunderman, is a find for YLT.  This eight-year-old spitfire can already command a stage, and manages to keep all eyes on Wunderman when the dictatorial publisher cuts loose in her office.  She says, "I just love my character," and she has a right to; Wunderman is a strong female character in two genres (musical theatre and comics-related matters) where strong women are hard to come by, and Stark pulls her off at a very young age.  She's a natural, and area children's Theatre Projects are well-advised to look her up.

Outside of Baker and Stark, Wilkinson and Varone must be singled out for some truly fine work.  Dr. Shock Clock is without doubt the most amusing super villain since Dr. Evil, and Wilkinson clearly relishes his role as the Master of Minutes and controller of a swarm of black-clad, greedy minions; he's a time lord of a totally different stripe than Doctor Who.  Varone, the grumpy, wardrobe-concerned Wombat Woman, really conveys the sadness of a super hero who feels completely underutilized in a team – even if, as a martial marsupial, she comes equipped with a super pocket in her uniform.

America's most uncoordinated childhood ballet and tap student before discovering that her talents were music and writing, Marakay Rogers finally traded in her violin for law school when she realized that she might make more money in law than she did performing with the Potomac Symphony and in orchestra pits around the mid-Atlantic. She has never recovered from being chewed out by Terrence Mann in public for hanging up her bow. A graduate of Wilson College (PA), Marakay is also a writer, film reviewer and interviewer for the Wilkes-Barre (PA) Independent Gazette, science-fiction publications, and other news outlets. She's also taught college-level communications, writing, and English literature classes, has received multiple writing awards, and is listed in Marquis' "Who's Who in America". In her free time, Marakay practices law and often gets it right.

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