Thanks to author, ‘StinkyKids the Musical’ at ‘home’ in Atlanta

There were no out-of-town tryouts for “StinkyKids the Musical,” which went straight to New York for its world premiere. There, it snagged the 2012 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for best family show, beating bigger-name competitors like “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Berenstain Bears.” It’s since been professionally staged everywhere from Toronto to the Quad Cities in the Midwest.

But nothing tickles Britt Menzies quite like seeing her "baby" play Synchronicity Theatre on Peachtree Street.

"I thought New York was huge, and it was, but Atlanta is bigger to me," said Menzies, 45, a Morningside resident and creator of the StinkyKids characters and books the musical is based on. A co-production with Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville (where it first ran last fall), it's at Synchronicity through March 8. "I finally get to show all these people who've supported me over the years what I do!"

Created by an experienced writing/composing team for the New York-based Vital Theatre Company, the musical is the non-preachy, toe-tapping tale of six "StinkyKids" (played by adult actors) with a serious dilemma: One of them has gotten gum stuck in her hair, and, unless they "fix" the problem, their highly anticipated group outing to Captain Happy's Jumpy Fun Super Bouncy Indoor Place could be in jeopardy! You'll find no more plot spoilers here, though rest assured the musical holds true to the StinkyKids' underlying credo about learning to become "a leader of good."

“Nobody’s perfect. Everybody makes mistakes,” said Menzies, explaining that she and her husband, Mark, used to call their two kids, Max, now 16, and Emma, 12, “little stinkers” when they got into mischief. “We all should strive to learn from our mistakes. That’s what makes a good person.”

Yet the more intriguing story behind StinkyKids is Menzies, who turned a simple request from her daughter into a creative and commercial juggernaut — largely by refusing to believe she couldn’t make things happen.

“I constantly walk this fine line (between) persistence and bugging,” Menzies laughed over coffee following the “StinkyKids” preview show, which she’d offered to drive a reporter to if necessary (it wasn’t). During a recent talk to SCAD students, she recalled, “I told them ‘no’ to me is a ‘not now.’”

The StinkyKids success story began innocently enough in 2005, when Emma asked her mom, an accountant by profession who’d dabbled in art as a child, to paint her “as a ballerina.” As she began painting other people’s kids, the colorful characters who’d become known as the StinkyKids emerged. Next came T-shirts, three books, dolls and then the musical, which a theatrical rights company now licenses worldwide. And she’s not done yet: Menzies just completed the concept for a StinkyKids animated sitcom and is working toward expanding into the digital world.

She doesn’t shy away from doing the hard work herself, selling T-shirts at arts festivals early on and self-publishing the first StinkyKids book. But she’s also always sought others’ input and expertise, whether that meant conducting informal focus groups to figure out which “Kids” resonated best or deciding to work with Vital Theatre Company and the creative team on the musical, Sammy Buck (book and lyrics) and Daniel S. Acquisto (music).

The musical finally ended up here, where it all began. So it’s only fitting that when the official “StinkyKids the Musical” cast album dropped on iTunes earlier this month, it featured the voices of the all-local cast now performing at Synchronicity. And that Menzies — who else? — helped make it happen.

“I called up (the licensing rights company) after the first rehearsal and said, ‘I found the cast and it’s in my own hometown,’” Menzies said happily. “This whole thing is a great hometown story!”