The happiest place on earth may not be Disneyland - at least not this Sunday evening. It may be Cinnabar Theater, where author-actor Trevor Allen performs his one-man show, “Working for the Mouse.”
Allen worked at Disneyland from 1988 to 1991, while getting his degree in theater at UCLA. He began, he said, as a “casual seasonal pageant helper.” The phrase is “very Disney” he explained. “They don’t want you to say you’re a character.”
Allen is a marvelous mimic: I counted 23 distinct characters, including Captain Hook, Alice in Wonderland, Jimmy Stewart, a Cockney chimney sweep and, of all things, the Brady Bunch’s Robert Reed teaching Shakespeare. And, of course, Pluto and Minnie, Donald and Mickey.
There is no Disney bashing, he said, though there will doubtless be some audience eye-rolling at the more peculiar rules and regulations one must follow to work at Disneyland. And while some the characters are amalgams, all the stories he tells “either happened to me or to someone I knew while I was there.”
He began making then-minimum wage, $4.25 an hour. “That’s not a living wage.” But, he was star-struck. For him, the job was “all about imagination, and not wanting to grow up.” So his wishing star became the goal of being a “face character” with “voice clearance” - in other words a speaking character - specifically, the perennial Never-Grow-Upper; Peter Pan.
Whether or not he attained this goal is not for this reviewer to reveal. I want you to find out for yourself, because Allen’s journey is engaging and funny, ludicrous and poignant. In short, the show is a delight.
Who doesn’t like to peek behind the curtain? Now’s your chance to learn what it’s like to be on Main Street USA, not as a starry-eyed tourist in a mouse-eared felt beanie, but in costume: acting, singing and dancing at the “Happiest Place on Earth.”
“Working for the Mouse” plays at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26, at Cinnabar Theater, 3333 Petaluma Blvd. North. Tickets are $20 in advance; $25 at the door. Call 763-8920 or go to cinnabartheater.org.
(Contact Katie Watts at argus@arguscourier.com)
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