How does having a family member with a disability reflect on you as a person? This sensitive issue is explored with youthful gusto and a generous heart in “Nobody’s Perfect,” a world-premiere family musical at the Kennedy Center by Marlee Matlin and Doug Cooney, with an infectious score by Deborah Wicks La Puma.
Based on a children’s book by Miss Matlin, an Oscar-winning deaf actress, and Mr. Cooney, “Nobody’s Perfect” deals with the oftentimes icky feelings we experience with friends and family members who are disabled. We wish we could be noble and unselfish all the time, but real people don’t always act that way.
Megan (Tami Lee Santimyer, a deaf actress who uses both American Sign Language and speech) is a 9-year-old deaf girl planning the ultimate purple-themed party for her upcoming 10th birthday — the preparations for which are detailed in the spunky girl-group harmonies of the song “Purple.” All of her BFFs are invited, and in the spirit of sharing, Megan also offers a glitter-spackled invitation to the new girl in class, Alexis (Jennifer Irons).
Alexis’ arrival inspires equal doses of envy and admiration because, as she proclaims in the lilting number “Perfection,” she’s “99.999999999 percent perfect.” In the attitude department, she’s a pint-size Kimora Lee Simmons and blows off Megan’s invite. However, as we are to discover, Alexis’ haughtiness is a defense mechanism because she’s uncomfortable about her autistic brother, Justin (Kip Pierson).
Alexis believes her brother’s condition compromises her “perfection,” and “Nobody’s Perfect” is at its most winning in its bracing honesty about attitudes toward the disabled.
Although popular and well-liked by her hearing friends (Florrie Bagel, Rachel Brennan, Omoro Omoighe), Megan realizes she’s a bit prickly about her deafness and gets a jolt out of being accommodated and thought of as “special.”
It takes a science-fair project, a hamster named Zippity (Mr. Pierson again, expertly distinctive in a variety of roles) and noodgy friends for Megan and Alexis to get off their high horses and see that they have much more in common than they first realized.
“Nobody’s Perfect” imparts this message about acceptance in a child-friendly musical that fetchingly incorporates finger-spelling and ASL into the choreography. (There are also electronic supertitles for even greater accessibility.)
Megan’s girlfriends are like the Supremes, a backup chorus signing with soul in the numbers “She Said No” and “Megan Is Great.” The hip-hop song “Hamster Panic”— a tongue-in-cheek sendup of overproduced music videos of the Beyonce and J.Lo ilk — brought the house down and the tots in the audience to their feet.
These Kennedy Center family shows boast outstanding production values and top-notch casts, and “Nobody’s Perfect” continues this happy tradition with buoyant performances by Miss Bagel as the ever-accommodating Bethany, Miss Brennan as the mouthy Cindy and Miss Omoighe as the vibrant Keisha. Miss Santimyer and Miss Irons contribute nuanced and often turbulent portrayals of young girls grappling with self-image in a show that ultimately celebrates the way our flaws often make us better than perfect.
***1/2
WHAT: “Nobody’s Perfect,” based on the book by Marlee Matlin and Doug Cooney; script and lyrics by Mr. Cooney, music by Deborah Wicks La Puma
WHERE: Family Theater, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Fridays; 1:30, 4 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; 1:30 and 4 p.m. Sundays. Through Nov. 3.
TICKETS: $18
PHONE: 202/467-4600
WEB SITE: www.kennedy-center.org
MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS
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