A Time Out of Rhyme

Over tea and crumpets at a quaint Victorian café in The Land of the Classics, Queen Cleopatra and Queen Morgana notify Captain Hook that he’s in big trouble. Hook is about to be demoted as a Truly Vile Villain and exiled from the Land of the Classics to the lowly Province of Story, replaced by more modern villains like Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter. Hook’s only hope is to commit a truly vile villainous act to maintain his status. Alarmed at first, then depressed, then determined to do whatever it takes to maintain his status, Hook and his henchman Smee invade Mother Gooseland. They take King Cole, Princess Lady Lee and Prince Christopher Cambridge hostage, then enslave a gaggle of other Mother Goose heroes in the Big Rock Candy Mountain. Hook proclaims that Mother Gooseland is now his domain, and there will be no more nursery rhymes and fairy tales for future generations of little children, a vile and villainous act if there ever was one. Little Jack Horner, urged on by Mary Quite Contrary, wants to lead a rebellion against Hook and win Mary Quite Contrary’s heart, but he has to grow up first and he doesn’t know how, because nobody ever grows up in Mother Gooseland. But then Hook captures Mary and takes her to his dungeon in the Sinister Swamp, giving Jack the goosing that he needs to go into battle with Hook and try to rescue Mary, regardless of how daunting the odds against him might be. Jack brings together the Three Men in a Tub, Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum and Humpty Dumpty. Together, they free the enslaved Mother Gooslanders and rally them to the fight. Jack, Humpty, the Three Men and the Tweedles lead the Mother Gooselanders into a battle that ends with the defeat of Hook and his band of pirates. Then Peter Pan swoops in and forces Hook to admit that he’s gotten out of his league, and that Hook belongs back in Never Never Land, having battles and adventures with Peter and the Lost Boys. As Hook and Peter fly off, Jack and Mary, now deeply in love, hurry away to rescue Jack's father from a Giant at the top of a beanstalk. Everyone else celebrates a new alliance between Mother Gooseland and the Land of the Classics that will keep Mother Goose nursery rhymes and fairytales safe for future generations - unless Hook and his pirate henchmen somehow manage to return. In which case Jack will be back, and all the others will too, in A Time Out of Rhyme, Part Two!