Boling's recommendation for the week of 5 June

   Of this week's shows, only the following is still running:

Saturday 10 June 2006: Junie B. Jones & A Little Monkey Business at Seattle Children's Theatre
   Junie (Liz McCarthy) is a kindergarten student whose mother (Leslie Law) is about to have a baby. When the baby comes, Junie's grandmother (Laura Kenny) refers to him as "the cutest little monkey I ever saw," and the stage is set for Junie to auction off the right for one of her classmates to be the first to visit the baby monkey at her house. Along the way we get to see the value of doting grandparents (Peter A Jacobs as Grandpa) and the terrors of school (Kenny as Junie's teacher, Stephen Hando as the principal). There is also a gaggle of fellow students (normally Lisa Estridge as Grace, played at this performance by Alyssa Keene), with Jacobs, Hando, and Law also playing kids.
   The story is for the youngest of SCT's audiences, and is a little thin, but replete with marvelous set and costume design (Edie Whitsett and Karen Ledger), and livened with several songs (not all fully understandable, though body mikes are used). David Bennett directed and Mark Rabe music directed, with book, music, and lyrics by Joan Cushing.
   Checkmarks to Whitsett, McCarthy, and Keene; honorable mentions to Kathryn van Meter (choreography), Jacobs and Kenny. Runs one more weekend.