It’s easy to forget, as adults, just how much of our time as children is spent worrying about our teeth coming out. I haven’t given it a thought in probably 20 years, but my son is now at the age when this is a Very Legitimate Concern. He asks me questions like, “When you were a kid, did you pull your teeth out or just let them fall out?” And I inevitably scramble to remember, how did I feel about the whole thing? It does cross my mind that this isn’t something we completely leave behind as we pass through adolescence. A quick Google search tells me that dreaming of your teeth falling out is fairly common, affecting around 39 percent of people, although I’ve never had it myself. I will confess that if my son hadn’t recently begun to lose his teeth, it probably wouldn’t have occurred to me to attend The Circuit Playhouse’s production of Junie B. Jones: Toothless Wonder. Thankfully, however, the stars aligned, because it would have been to my detriment to miss it. My 7-year-old son accompanied me, and it’s a performance we both loved.
Junie B. Jones — she wouldn’t have us leave out the “B,” reminiscent of Anne “with an ‘e’” — is a character most people would describe as “precocious.” To me, she was fabulous — a refreshingly powerful female character and inspiration to all. A line in the show stood out: Junie B. looks at her reflection after she finally does — spoiler alert — lose her tooth. In that moment, she regains her briefly lost confidence, but she doesn’t make a reference at all to beauty. What she says is, “I think I look fascinating.” To that I say HELL YES, Junie B.! Would that we all could celebrate ourselves with such honesty. Brooke Papritz nailed that moment and, for that matter, this role. Watching an adult play a child can be an extremely unpleasant experience, especially if it’s obvious that the performer has lost connection with their own childlike wonder. Papritz, along with all the cast members playing children onstage, gave Junie B. and her classmates all the spunk and pizzazz an audience could hope for.
Junie B. Jones: Toothless Wonder reminds us that when children are facing problems every molehill can look and feel like a mountain. This is certainly true for Junie B., a schemer who has a wiggly front tooth, with all the subsequent Tooth-Fairy-related worries that come with it, on top of being the only one who isn’t invited to her classmate’s birthday party. Junie B. is an over-the-top dramatic kind of girl, which is perfect for the theater and also for reminding us that even the loudest, most hyperbolic behavior can sometimes represent very real, raw feelings. This is a theme that seems to be getting more and more traction in today’s entertainment for kids, which I love to see. Junie B.’s “what if” soliloquies remind me of Pixar’s Inside Out 2’s character Anxiety, who was popular with adult audiences.
Regardless of the emotional poignancy present in this play, it remains resolutely a comedy. Walking back to our car after the show, my son went through a list of his favorite moments. “And my fourth favorite part was …” It’s a good sign for any performance to garner one or two stand-out moments, let alone four. I laughed out loud several times in the show and appreciated how often timing was a punch line all on its own.
This play may be a simple, hour-long production with a target audience of young children, but it nevertheless has every component necessary for great theater. Humor, drama, and superb storytelling (the callback to recycling is top-notch writing) make this a show worth anyone’s time. If my son’s reaction was anything to go by, your kids will love it. They may consistently call it a “movie” afterward when trying to puzzle out if the actor playing Junie B. actually lost her tooth, but they’ll still love it.
Junie B. Jones: Toothless Wonder runs at The Circuit Playhouse through December 22nd.