Growing Pretty

continued

The script is perhaps a bit loaded with nuclear-family-dysfunction big-ticket items: depression, dead siblings, absent father, infidelity. It helps that Lucy's story is coupled to real events — the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, Tiananmen Square, Jack Kevorkian, the rise of Michael Jordan and Bill Clinton — which tether her to a recognizable world, because it's not always clear what meaning Crim was trying to tease out of the unhappy family history. Lucy does grow pretty: when she pulls off a hoodie she convincingly transforms herself from chubby twelve-year-old to resplendent young adult, and the change owes a lot to the effective costume design of Meghann O'Malley Powell. The fluid, simple production is directed by Michelle Mountain and rounded out with a solid ensemble including Grant Krause, Michael Brian Ogden, and Rhiannon Ragland.

Growing Pretty continues its two-month run through May 31, Wednesdays through Sundays plus two Tuesdays, May 6 and 27.

[Review published May 2008]