Miss Nelson is Missing!
February 28 through March 16, 2003
Directed by Torrie Dunlap. Book, music and lyrics by Joan Cushing. Based on the book by Harry Allard and James Marshall.

Reviews

By Rob Hopper,
San Diego Playbill

Usually the long-time, all-knowing janitor of Horace B. Smedley Elementary, “Mop” Hanson (Rachel Rogov), is sad to see the kids go at the end of the year. But Miss Nelson’s class in Room 207? They’ve gone above and beyond the normal level of unruliness expected from any group of self-respecting grade-school children. Never paying the slightest heed to anything the sweet, patient, soft-spoken Miss Nelson has to say, dancing on their desks with unrestrained enthusiasm, “handing” in their homework by wadding it up and throwing it at their poor teacher.

But today the sweet, patient, soft-spoken Miss Nelson has had enough. Today the rambunctious kids in Room 207 have a substitute teacher dressed in black with ratty hair, a witch-like face, a cackling witch-like voice, and a penchant for smacking things with a yardstick. This substitute teacher Viola Swamp, conjured from the darkest regions of imaginations of schoolchildren everywhere, is about to make some major behavior modifications in Room 207, inspiring the children with no carrots but a really big stick.

Stephanie Ward is a terrifying riot as the sweet Miss Nelson who transforms into the hideous Viola Swamp who soon has her students examining the various socio-political theories presented by Plato’s Republic, making new breakthroughs on string theory, and struggling to come up with a cure for cancer. Her wicked voice, intimidating body language, and even more intimidating use of the large ruler, which eventually breaks into pieces to drive home her message a little clearer, is all performed to great effect.

Elsewhere, Nick Grooms has a hilarious cameo as Principal Blandsford who tries, unsuccessfully, to engage the students with an amusing birdcall song and dance routine. Phillip Bowen has a great scene as the not-so-sly sleuth Detective McSmogg whom the kids hire to help them find their old teacher, the sweet Miss Nelson, who by then they are desperately missing!

And then there are all the kids from Room 207 who raise such a ruckus in class that you wonder if they’ve been practicing for this role in school for years! Miss Nelson is Missing is a musical with some great numbers for the kids. The What If scene has Amy Andreasen, Charlotte Wen, Philip Greenberg, and Max Needham wondering what might have happened to their missing teacher, theorizing such fates as being sucked into a vacuum cleaner (“that would be really gross”), falling down the toilet, or simply being stuck on the I-5 merge. McSmogg and several of the students wonder if they’ve done right in hiring this absent-minded detective in Never Fear…McSmogg is Here. And Emily Mann, Jacob Sampson, Abbey Howe, and Kyle Crews combine for the tender and funny title song Miss Nelson is Missing when they realize how much they truly miss their teacher whom they had taken advantage of for so long.

This world premiere musical by Joan Cushing, based on the books by Harry Allard and James Marshall, and featuring some excellent direction by Torrie Dunlap, is a terrific and cute new play for youth theatre with great comedy while teaching some important lessons without any boring lectures!