“Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus! The Musical!”
***** Theater for little ones is fun! Over the years, I have watched many a performance geared for the little one; the future theater audiences are learning at these productions. There are many theater companies that do only children’s theater and then there is The Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre in Lincolnshire. This theater-in-the-round offers marvelous performances, one hour in duration, that for the most part utilize the existing set of the mainstage show for adults. The current production is one that I previously watched at The Greenhouse Theatre in Chicago, where they could use a set and have the audience on one side looking into the action. At Marriott, this is not the case, people are watching from all four vantage points, so the director has to make sure that the action is viewed clearly by all of the audience. Not always easy, but in this case, Lorenzo Rush Junior works his magic in getting done to perfection.
This adaptation of Mo Willems’ award winning book, tells us the story of how hard it is to be a pigeon ’cause you never get to do anything, and most people do not like you. They just want you to “fly away”. In this story, Pigeon ( Matty Bettencourt is amazing) is represented by a hand puppet on our performers hand. After a short time, we forget he is a puppet and begin to feel that the pigeon is very real.
When a new bus route and stop comes to where Pigeon hangs out, he decides that he would like to try driving said bus. Of course he cannot and the bus driver ( deftly handled by Lydia Burke) explains that one must be well trained to do so. What happens is that the bus breaks down and while the driver tries to get it going, Pigeon is asked to be of assistance by flying from bus stop to bus stop to alarm those waiting that the bus will be a little late. Bettencourt uses the entire theater to deliver the message with some great interplay with the kids as he does. A special moment indeed.
This is Pigeon’s new purpose, and he even learns to fly in order to complete this mission. The story is filled with morals and each child in the audience might walk away with something different. They will learn about dreams, discovery, friendship, community, and to me the most important, purpose. This show has some other cast members that truly make the show a wonderful experience ( for adults as well). They are: Tommy Rivera-Vega, Allison Sill ( her bird foot bit is adorable), Dan Gold and Leah Morrow who also did the welcome to the audience in order to get the kids into the show.
The musical direction by Otto Vogel is perfect and I adored some of the choreography (Matthew Weidenbener), knowing that space is quite limited. Gregory Graham’s costumes are adorable and the lighting (Sim Carpenter) and sound (Willow James) all work. The puppets were designed by Rick Lyons (TYKE) are also adorable. One of the beautiful parts of Marriott Theatre For Young Audiences productions is the after talk. The kids get to meet the cast, ask questions and learn a bit about theater itself.
I always try to give you a child’s eye view and today I employed two new writers/viewers, Anna and her best friend Saoirse- her is what they had to say.
Anna and Saoirse (pronounced Seer-sha), first graders (6 years old) at Blaine Elementary School in Chicago had the opportunity to attend one of the first showings of “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus”, a play based on the books of Mo Willems. They are both huge fans of the books and couldn’t wait to see the live show.
They both unanimously said that their favorite part of the program was when the bus broke down. There was lots of loud noises and funny acting by the person that played the engine. It was definitely a highlight!. They also enjoyed all of the music and singing and clapping along, especially when the pigeon was learning to fly. They thought it was really cool how the stage was round and the actors could walk around the stage, giving everyone a great view of the pigeon and the cast.
As a parent, I appreciated the length of the show, it was perfect for the attention span of young children. I also enjoyed that there was adult comedy sprinkled in to keep the dialogue entertaining for all ages. We were also really impressed by the talent of the cast, both their acting and their singing.
After the show we attended a meet and greet and the girls had so much fun petting one of the ducks! The cast was so nice and welcoming of the young fans and spent time after the show answering questions with thoughtful responses.
We all agreed that we would definitely recommend to anyone that is a fan of the books, or anyone with preschool to early elementary school aged children. It was a very fun morning out!
