If 'Da Noise demonstrates that less can be more, Big insists that more is more is more. Making a stage musical out of the Penny Marshall film was a good idea, but not an easy one to bring off. The movie is consciously scaled down and is able to sustain the dreamlike quality that a fairy tale needs to have. Onstage, Big blusters. There are squads of kids charging around, excellent dancers all, but they look like pint-size adults churning out routines.
Nothing is left to chance or serendipity.
What saves Big from being a big bore is the attractiveness of the principal performers. As the overgrown Josh Baskin, Daniel Jenkins lacks Hanks' emotional range, but he is expert at seeming beleaguered and he moves very well. As his befuddled girlfriend at the toy company, Crista Moore has energy and spunk with just the right overlay of sweetness. Brett Tabisel, as Josh's wise, loyal friend, is another in a seemingly endless supply of Broadway kids who act with an unmatched New York blend of guts and insouciance. The score, by David Shire, is a serviceable, if obvious, obeisance to Stephen Sondheim, and the lyrics, by Richard Maltby Jr. are ingratiating.