Some of the keys to unlocking excitement in a stage performance for preschoolers are rhythm and repetition.

"You no can catch me, I'm the Musubi Man!" is the refrain that drives Lee Cataluna's script, and before the show is halfway to the curtain call, kids in the audience are shouting it out along with the actors.

Cataluna adapted the script from the children's book by Sandi Takayama, who in turn had reworked "The Gingerbread Man" for a local audience. In the original, an anthropomorphic cookie runs away from the little old couple that baked him and is eaten by a fox.

The Hawaiian equivalent has the Musubi Man chased by, among others, a mynah bird and a mongoose until he makes a getaway riding waves on the head of a surfer. He also eludes being eaten and goes on to a long career as a good luck charm.

But while repetition is the engine, the stage picture in the current revival by Honolulu Theatre for Youth doesn't always hit on all cylinders.

In previous HTY productions, the characters were initially created by the actors and quickly replaced by cartoon cutouts. By the time the story reached its conclusion, the stage was filled with a crowd of plywood pursuers.

The current show, directed by Harry Wong III, eliminates the cutouts and has cast members Emily Hare and Nathan Mark play all the parts. They're able to create characters as they first appear, but as their number grows, individuals get lost in the chase vortex.

Hare and Mark keep the energy high, using a 20-minute warm-up to settle the kids and introduce theater conventions and the subject of favorite things to eat.

As the story begins, the old couple assembles the Musubi Man, giving him Spam slippers and a seaweed wrap designed by Morgan Lane-Tanner. When they add a heart, the creation springs to life as a puppet.

The Musubi Man not only has a mouth, he has a taunting vocabulary to go with it. Little wonder that everyone he encounters wants to eat him.