One boy's series of unfortunate events — set to music

Once upon the early 1970s, there was a little boy named Alexander — a clumsy little fella, prone to accident. Alexander was having a day so bad it would have defied description, were his mother not psychoanalyst/children's book author Judith Viorst. She found just the string of negative descriptors to capture her son's misfortunes in the hit book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day."

Three decades later, Seattle Children's Theatre bops through Alexander's worst childhood moments, in a musical of the same name for kids ages 5 and up, adapted several years ago from Viorst's book.

The plot is a gem of simplicity: Alexander's day starts off badly, gets worse and then goes downhill from there. Gum in the hair, rejection at school, cavities — every schoolkid's worst nightmare rears its head in Alexander's epically miserable day.

Theater review

"Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," book and lyrics by Judith Viorst, music by Shelly Markham. Produced by Seattle Children's Theatre. Runs Fridays-Sundays through June 12th at Eve Alvord Theatre, Seattle Center; $14-28 (206-441-3322 or www.sct.org).

Somehow, this third-grade celebration of negativity seems a bit less bleak — even downright amusing — accompanied by the SCT cast's winning improvisational attitude and Shelly Markham's bop-along musical score.

However, there are some rough edges along the way as director Susan Finque searches for an innovative spin on the well-trod story. Etta Lilienthal's topsy-turvy set — a tilting rear wall with hidden magnets that hold various movable set-pieces (tables, sinks, blankets) — seems brilliant while in use but looms boringly during the considerable stretches when it is left blank.

As for Alexander, MJ Sieber departs from Ray Cruz's original illustrations (which cast Alexander as a stoic, disheveled grump), to give us a hyperactive, whiny-pants klutz. Sieber manages bumbling likability when he isn't stretching the upper reaches of his vocal limits.

But if only all of us could get local divas Felicia Loud and Sarah Rudinoff to tag along with us on those rainy Monday mornings, we might eliminate bad days altogether.

Loud (known also for her band Felicia Loud and the Soul) and busy actress-singer Rudinoff stand out in the ensemble. Finque casts them as everything from a personified bathroom sink to the innards of a high-tech copy machine — consistently showing off their vocal prowess and giddy improvisational gifts.

If that doesn't have a positive effect on little Alexander's negative attitude, nothing will. Combined with the familiarity that most kids reading age and up will have with the book, the message — that even bad days have to end — shines through.