Presented by Theatreworks/NYC by special arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher St., NYC, July 7–Aug. 14.
Plays for young people—or adults, for that matter—don't get more charming than Julia Jordan's "Walk Two Moons," adapted from Sharon Creech's Newbery Medal–winning novel.
"Moons" centers on 13-year-old Salamanca, whose mom left on a Greyhound one day and has not yet returned. Her life is complicated by her dad's sudden decision to move from their native Kentucky and by her new friend, another just-teen named Phoebe.
Her adventures with Phoebe and much more of her family's story come spiraling out of Salamanca as she takes a cross-country road trip with her vaguely hippyish and slightly randy grandparents (Charles H. Hyman and Peggy Scott).
Jordan's play, which sends messages of tolerance and thoughtfulness to its young audiences without ever becoming a sermon, benefits greatly from the presence of Sarah Lord's enormously likable Salamanca. Lord brings the heroine's spunk and intuitiveness to the fore while also allowing youngsters to see that she's a little too unforgiving. Susan Louise O'Connor as pal Phoebe makes for a delightful priss with a healthy sense of entitlement, anxious to prove how much she knows.
As the girls' adventures unfold—one involving a mysterious stranger who comes to visit Phoebe's seemingly perfect, almost Stepford-wife mom, and another concerning the frightening Mrs. Cadaver (both played with skill by Heather Dilly)—Lucas Papaelias plays his original bluegrass-tinged music on guitar. (Papaelias also plays Salamanca's father and the boy she has a crush on with casual ease.)
In Melissa Kievman's fleet production, Paul Hackenmueller's lighting of Louisa Thompson's clever and sparse scenic design beautifully indicates locales on the trip and in Salamanca's memory. Anne Kennedy's colorful costumes are not just pleasing to the eye; they bring characters vibrantly to life in this wonderfully satisfying production.