Jordan Fenster

jfenster@lohud.com

NYACK — A puppet show for children left some parents steamed over what they saw as the negative portrayal of a puppet princess’ appearance.

Those concerns resulted in an apologetic email sent by the leadership at ArtsRock — where the 3rd annual Puppet Festival sold out this weekend — to families who had seen a performance of “The Magic Orange.”

“We received several comments after the show — and had similar concerns ourselves — about aspects of ‘The Magic Orange’ concerning gender stereotypes, including the negative emphasis on the princess’ appearance,” the email says. “Please know that we, too, were uncomfortable with some of the messages in the show.”

RELATED: Nyack Center Packed for annual puppet festival

Rick Lyon, who wrote and performed the show, called the issue a “tempest in a teapot,” and the product of “our current culture of outrage.”

“I’ve been performing ‘The Magic Orange’ for about 25 years,” Lyon said. “This is the first time there’s been this kind of reaction to it.”

He said that anyone who was outraged by the show “completely missed the point,” and that they were “people from a wealthy community who have entitlement up the wing-wang.”

“I wrote this show decades and decades ago,” Lyon said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with people.”

Lyon, originally from Rochester, New York, and currently living in New Jersey, is no stranger to puppet shows with adult themes. He conceived, designed and built the puppets for the Tony Award-winning show “Avenue Q,” performing several of the roles as part of the original Broadway cast.

“Avenue Q” famously features puppets having sex, getting drunk, questioning their sexuality and getting their puppet hearts broken. “The Magic Orange” is geared toward children, though Lyon did call it a “fractured fairy tale.”

In the show, a king offers half of his kingdom and the hand of his beautiful daughter the princess — she is repeatedly referred to as beautiful — to anyone who can find a particular magical orange.

A farm boy, the hero of the story — “poor but happy,” Lyon said — finds the magic orange but gets more than he bargained for. The king ambushes him with a ridiculous set of responsibilities and the princess turns out to be less than the beauty she was advertised to be.

“Somehow people got this twisted notion that I was being unfair to the princess,” Lyon said, arguing that if the roles had been switched, nobody would have complained. “The female stereotype is the villain, the antagonist.”

Elliott Forrest, artistic director at ArtsRock and one of its founders, said people did approach him after the show, and that he “had a similar response to some of the gender stereotypes in the storyline.”

Forrest, who noted that the average age of children at ArtsRock's puppet shows is “very young,” said the response to the email, sent to patrons following complaints, has been “mixed.” Some families raised concerns. “Other people saw the show and didn’t have a problem with it,” he said.

While he said “everyone was appreciative that we created a dialogue,” Forrest said ArtsRock seeks to be accessible to all ages.

“We’re not in the business of creating shows for controversy,” he said. “It certainly wasn’t our intention.”

Controversy wasn’t Lyon’s intention, either. He said he was “dazed and confused” by the negative response.

“It’s not a casual disregard for my audience,” he said, “and it’s not a casual disregard for the message I’m putting out.”

Twitter: @JordanFenster