Wiley and The Hairy ManRaleigh Little Theatre Review “WILEY AND THE HAIRY MAN” WILL DELIGHT CHILDREN OF ALL AGES WILEY AND THE HAIRY MAN, Texas college professor Suzan L. Zeder's highly entertaining 1972 stage adaptation of an African-American folktale, gives Raleigh Little Theatre's youth theater and education director Linda O'Day Young and the show's creative team a real chance to strut their stuff, to let their imaginations run wild, and to delight children of all ages in the process. Director Linda Young stages the show with great style and wit on scenic designer Rick Young's impressionistic Deep Woods swamp set, which is haunted by all sorts of nightmarish creatures. Choreographer Julie Mulvihill and musical director Jubal Creech artfully employ African rhythms to put spring in the cast's steps; and costume/make up designer Vicki Olson, wig designer Benjamin Butler, and props master Robin Hughes help set designer Rick Young create a fantastical world where magic can and does happen. Calef L. Taylor stars as Wiley, a spunky little boy whose dreams are increasingly haunted by the ominous image of a Hairy Man (Joseph Callender), who wants to spirit him away from all he knows and loves. Callender makes a most excellent boogieman, the stuff of nightmares, frightening in appearance and yet also somehow comical. LeDawna Akins is a pip as Wiley's feisty Mammy, who will ferociously defend the boy even at the cost of her own life; and Jacob Timmons is a hoot as the family's ever-watchful Hound Dog, whose jaws the Hairy Man must avoid when kidnapping Wiley. Yansa Crosby, Jasmine James, Monique James, Amanda Lee, Nyja Peterson, and Brandon Yates form a colorful chorus of swamp creatures who witness all the twists and turns of this tangled tale of WILEY AND THE HAIRY MAN. It is an imaginatively staged family show in which storybook characters come to full, glorious life. There has not been so much fun in a Southern swamp since Pogo declared, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Raleigh Little Theatre presents WILEY AND THE HAIRY MAN Friday, March 27, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday, March 21-22 and 28-29, at 1 and 5 p.m. in RLT's Gaddy-Goodwin Theatre, 301 Pogue St., Raleigh, North Carolina 27607. $12 ($8 children to age 12). 919/821-3111 or click here. RALEIGH LITTLE THEATRE: http://raleighlittletheatre.org/performances/08-09/wiley.html.
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