Edward Scissorhands has a designated spot in many movie viewers’ minds as the iconic gothic fairytale starring Johnny Depp, and it might be too hard to imagine anyone besides him playing that lanky, eccentric character. His idiosyncratic performance in the 1990 movie is hard to top, but the Edward Scissorhands musical at the 5th Avenue Theatre gives a new twist to a cherished classic.

Running in Seattle as part of a limited national tour, this musical is a great chance to brush up on an old favorite in a totally different way.

The production stays true to the storyline of the movie. At the center of the tale is Edward Scissorhands, an awkward young boy created by an inventor who lives alone in a hilltop mansion overlooking an American suburb. The inventor dies before he can complete Edward, leaving him with pairs of scissors for hands. He is discovered by homemaker Peg Boggs and brought down to experience American suburbia. Both the film and the musical center around the frightening, funny and touching experiences he has as he discovers a society that is both fascinated and repulsed by him.

The musical preserves the pink bubble gum and poodle skirt spirit of suburban America in the 1950s captured in the movie, but the musical is different in that there is no dialogue, no singing. The performance depends on its brilliant dancing and talented actors to tell the story. The costumes and set design are appropriately bright and fluorescent for the suburban scenes, and the scenes at the mansion are an eerie contrast to the cacophony that takes place in suburbia. Edward Scissorhands dons the same black garb and wild hair as in the movie, and the actor playing Scissorhands captures the same quirky spirit that Depp did in the movie.

The performance starts and ends with the fictional Kim Boggs, a cute cheerleader in her heyday who is seen on stage as Edward’s old and withered love interest years after his foray into the neighborhood.

The set is seamlessly transformed from the cluttered inventor’s mansion, to a backyard barbecue, to a lavish Christmas party complete with a towering Christmas tree. For most of the musical, the stage is filled, almost overwhelmingly, with characters of all ages that represent the different families Edward comes into contact with. At times, it feels like an extra pair of eyes is necessary to keep track of all the different stories unfolding on stage between the dancing and set changes.

The dance numbers are brilliantly choreographed and consist mostly of furiously paced swing dances with the flips and spins typical of the style, but there are also some impressive displays of ballet in the slower and more sensitive acts between Edward and his love interest, Kim.

The music takes the production to another level by complementing the emotions on stage without being distracting, and the orchestra masterfully glides between rumbling swing beats and touching wind interludes.

Seattle is lucky to be one of the few cities to have the opportunity to host this musical, and the dazzling production will add another level of fame to a cult classic.