Spring Break
Junie B. Looks Beyond Kindergarten To First Grade
Madeline Ward
Issue date: 2/26/07 Section: Focus
"Junie B. Jones" has been a sensational hit of the children's library section and first grade reading rooms since its debut in 1996. Theatre Works Company does the children's classic justice in a Broadway musical style show that has echoes of "Grease" and "Dreamgirls."
This musical tells the story of June Beatrice Jones in her first glimpse of life beyond the sandbox and sippy cups of kindergarten. The thoughts of this charmingly spastic first grader are all held in a black marbled notebook. The set design was of course a large version of the notebook. Complete with gum wad, Reese's peanut butter cup wrapper and treasured pencil with teddy bear eraser sticking out of the notepad.
The plot was a combination of several books starting with her first day of school. Jones deals with losing a best friend to twins with rhyming names and making a new friend named Herbert, who by the end of the play she was certain she was going to marry. She also had the pre-adolescent horror of getting glasses and having to sit out during a kickball tournament.
It brought back that special feeling of childhood when certain events seemed so important, even if no else seemed to understand that. The show also recreated the simple joys of being rescued by an adult, like when a lunch lady came to deliver a tray of cookies and gave Jones the credit for reminding her to bring them.
The look of the sets and the music had the feeling of a first grade classroom, complete with chairs and lunch trays. It could have been straight out of "Fun with Dick and Jane" or a Golden Book, except for the casual mentions of Kool-Aid, Mountain Dew and Jose, a new young bi-lingual classmate, that grounded it in the present day.
Jones, who was played by Katherine Donahoe, had a very professional voice that made the audience think they were at a Broadway production of "Wicked" when she began singing "Writing Down the Story of Our Lives," except that the only munchkins present were in the audience.
This musical tells the story of June Beatrice Jones in her first glimpse of life beyond the sandbox and sippy cups of kindergarten. The thoughts of this charmingly spastic first grader are all held in a black marbled notebook. The set design was of course a large version of the notebook. Complete with gum wad, Reese's peanut butter cup wrapper and treasured pencil with teddy bear eraser sticking out of the notepad.
The plot was a combination of several books starting with her first day of school. Jones deals with losing a best friend to twins with rhyming names and making a new friend named Herbert, who by the end of the play she was certain she was going to marry. She also had the pre-adolescent horror of getting glasses and having to sit out during a kickball tournament.
It brought back that special feeling of childhood when certain events seemed so important, even if no else seemed to understand that. The show also recreated the simple joys of being rescued by an adult, like when a lunch lady came to deliver a tray of cookies and gave Jones the credit for reminding her to bring them.
The look of the sets and the music had the feeling of a first grade classroom, complete with chairs and lunch trays. It could have been straight out of "Fun with Dick and Jane" or a Golden Book, except for the casual mentions of Kool-Aid, Mountain Dew and Jose, a new young bi-lingual classmate, that grounded it in the present day.
Jones, who was played by Katherine Donahoe, had a very professional voice that made the audience think they were at a Broadway production of "Wicked" when she began singing "Writing Down the Story of Our Lives," except that the only munchkins present were in the audience.
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