Hansel & Gretel gets zwei big thumbs up

It takes a while for it to find its rhythm, und der Churman ak-zents drag it down a bit, but by the happy ending (happy even for the Nibblewitch), Hansel & Gretel’s Gingerbread Games, which opened Friday night at the Arkansas Arts Center’s Children’s Theatre, finally earns two plump thumbs up.

Through the machinations of a Young Girl (Rachel Laster), who insists on turning dark and dreary into fun and fabulous, playwright Keith Smith turns the Grimm fairy tale into a game show of sorts.

Hansel (Braxton Johnson) and Gretel (Georgeann Burbank) are perennially playful singing-and-dancing siblings who continually wear out their poor parents (Jared Thomas Kneip Gibson and Paige Carpenter) until they no longer have time to chop wood or provide food.

Meanwhile, hungry Hoopoe, the bird-footed witch (Bethany Post), has a hankering for two plump children, and devises a mechanical game boy (Anthony McBride) to lure them to her gingerbread cottage via a scavenger hunt that involves a flatulent troll (Mackenzie Holtzclaw), a stinky swamp and a dwarf orchard. A sort of Greek chorus (the “Glitz and Zazz Ensemble” — Holtzclaw, Sela Booher, Evanee Dokes, Morgan Jones, Clarke Preston and Madison Stolzer) keeps things flowing, serving as scene crew, spare trolls and overall corps de ballet. Even the Brothers Grimm (Stephen Jones as grim Wilhelm and McBride as goofy Jacob) find active parts.

The performers all have good voices, which helps with music director Lori Loree’s enlivening tunes (the parents’ “where have our lost kiddies gone” number is particularly effective). It’s a pity that director Katie Campbell, whose staging is otherwise sure-footed, has burdened her characters — unabashedly German like the origins of the tale — with those clumsy accents, which may have been hard for the audience’s many tiny children to puzzle through. Lauren Lusk’s set ably serves as dark and scary forest, happy Hansel & Gretel home and all the stops along the scavenger hunt.

The Gingerbread Games continue, 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through Nov. 11 at the Arts Center in MacArthur Park, East Ninth and Commerce streets, Little Rock. Ticket information is available by calling (501) 372-4000 or online at arkansasartscenter.org.