The Walnut puts world-class literature onstage with ‘Stinky Cheese Man’

I wasn’t a girl who would’ve given a hoot about Frozen. I had The Lion King on VHS, but nary a Disney princess tee. Deduce what you will about my character or smarts today, but when author Jon Scieszka and illustrator Lane Smith published The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales in 1992, I was nine years old, and it was one of the best books I’d ever read.

Several years later, I brought my old copy along when I babysat and guffawed along with the kids at bedtime. This year, I became a homeowner and marked the occasion by finding The Stinky Cheese Man in an old crate and putting all unpacking on hold until I had read it again, cover to cover.

That’s why, when I heard that the Walnut’s latest kids’ show is an adaptation of Scieszka’s book titled The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fair(l)y (stoopid) Tales (don’t ask me why playwright Kent Stephens messed with a perfectly good title), I had to click. You can have your creative license for Jane Eyre, The Hobbit, or The Hunger Games, but I dearly hope this play is true to the book.

Because instead of a bizarrely peripatetic Gingerbread Man, Scieszka and Smith’s creation offers a decidedly unappealing Stinky Cheese Man — he’s not very popular and he meets a mooshy end due to his own effluvium. The book also has a really self-righteous Little Red Hen who tangles with the Giant from Jack and the Beanstalk, and an apathetic Cinderumplestiltskin (don’t ask). There’s a talking frog who isn’t above lying to princesses. Spoiler alert: The Ugly Duckling isn’t a swan, and he ain’t getting any prettier.

Stage versions of Stinky Cheese Man have been on the road nationally and internationally for several years. According to the Walnut, its version was also featured in the Shanghai International Children’s Festival. This one is an hour-long musical directed by Damon Bonetti (flexing admirable range, having recently helmed Drexel’s very, very serious Blood Wedding).

Matinees of the Walnut Street Theatre for Kids’ The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fair(l)y (stoopid) Tales are running January 31 through February 8 ($14-$16, with discounts available for groups of ten or more). For tickets and more information, call 215-574-3550 or visit the Walnut online.

At right: cast members of the Walnut's Stinky Cheese Man. Photo by Mark Garvin.