Musicals for the Prescool Set?

I have always loved theater. In high school and college, I dabbled in acting, made costumes, ran shows backstage. Whenever I travel to a city, I make a point to see a production of something. The summer I was in London for three weeks, I saw four plays.

I've also done my best to get my children interested in theater. I take them to local productions, university theater department plays, puppet-based theatricals, basically any place that I think the show itself is appropriate for small ones. It never ceases to amaze me, although we've been to a fair amount of theater, how well they can pay attention and maintain a respectful silence.

But for me it's always a gamble: will my three- and five-year-olds behave themselves in a "grown-up" venue?

So, I was quick to jump at the offer of promotional tickets to the traveling production of Thomas and Friends Live Onstage, which is perhaps the only BIG show I know that is explicitly aimed at the preschool set. (Even Disney on Ice is, I think, aimed at children in the 4-7 age range.) And then, today, off we went.

Here's what my son (age 5) had to say about the show: "It was good; I liked it." When pressed to clarify what he liked about it, he replied with a smile, "Everything." My daughter clapped along, made Thomas toot whistle sounds, bobbed her head to the music, laughed a lot. In short, both of them were thoroughly entertained.

My husband and I, on the other hand? Not quite so much. Sure, it was really fun to watch the children having such a good time, but the plot of the show itself was hardly scintillating (a circus is coming to town, and Thomas keeps messing things up by trying to be helpful). And the entire experience was LOUD. L-O-U-D, *loud* loud LOUD.

Part of the noise was due to the incessant chatter of the three-year-old audience. "Where's Harold? Where's Harold? Harold? Harold! Haaaarrrrrooolllllddddd!" chanted a little one in the row in front of us. It was pretty cute in the singular. But multiply it by the hundreds of people in the audience, and it made sense why the cast had to have the volume turned up so exceedingly loud on their microphones. Between the chattering audience, the shout-singing cast, and the numbing plot, I was glad when the two hours were over.

To be fair, I find the television episodes of Thomas a little odd and not that compelling either. And I realize that what is compelling to a parent is often precisely the opposite of what will be enrapturing to a pre-schooler. But I also think that the best productions aimed at children, particularly very young ones, contain elements intended for adult appreciation -- excellent skating, if that's your thing, or fancy footwork in the choreography, or an intriguing plot, or witty dialogue.

This show had, I must say, fantastic trains. Apart from the excellent fact that their faces were mobile, the engines chugging across the stage look exactly like the tiny, shiny plastic ones in the battery-operated Thomas line. But these engines onstage were big enough for full-grown humans to drive as conductors. That was pretty amazing.

In short, my recommendation would be to take the little ones to this show if you personally enjoy the animated episodes. It really is just like an episode come to life. If you don't love Thomas on tv yourself, but your little ones do, then take them for the joy of watching the joy on their faces. That is certainly not valueless. Just don't go expecting a show pitched at adults. Because, really, your three-year-old has different taste than you do.

Disney on Ice: Movies in Real Life

Perhaps you remember the great time my family had this past fall at the circus? For us, performances of all kinds are things to adore. Having been involved in theater myself throughout high school and college, I eagerly took my son to his first performance of a play (a musical comedic version of Pinocchio) when he was just shy of two years old, and he sat like a stone throughout the whole near-two-hour show...and then burst into tears when the lights came up because he didn't want it to be over.

After that rousing success, we have jumped at the chance to take the kids to live performances whenever we can. Sometimes these are professional performances; sometimes they are university productions; sometimes they are free concerts in the park on balmy summer nights. Whether we're off to see a puppet show, a musical, a sporting event, or a circus, though, both kids (now ages five and nearly-three) are extra-excited that there will be real people there performing! In costumes! Singing! Or Taming Tigers! Or Running Around with Balls! Or, in the case of our exciting upcoming event: Ice Skating! (Childish enthusiasm requires the exclamation points, you understand.)

We took them to see Disney on Ice this past fall -- back when the Incredibles were on tour, as it were. Despite the chill in the air around the open rink, and the fact that, as my son rightly pointed out, "that boy doesn't quite look like the real Dash," they had a wonderful time. It was fascinating to watch my son look for similarities and differences to the movie he loves, while his little sister was primarily interested in all the "bootiful" skating.

So in a few weeks, we are off the The Palace at Auburn Hills for another Disney extravaganza -- this time in the form of "Worlds of Fantasy." To be honest, it's not clear to me that anything about Disney is anything but worlds of fantasy, but the name aside, this show promises to have something for everyone. With vignette performances from the favorite characters of a number of recent classics, I am sure they'll both be thrilled. Lightening McQueen will be there, as will The Little Mermaid, the animals from The Lion King's "circle of life" and Tinker Bell and a passel of her fairy friends. As if this weren't enough, there is a complimentary Princesses fashion show before the actual skating performance starts.

My son is just interested enough in gender stereotypes that I am predicting this will happen: he will adopt a high-pitched, coddling voice, wrap his arm protectively around his little sister's shoulders, and usher her down to "meet the princesses" -- all because he is absolutely certain that this is precisely my daughter's deepest heart's desire. I'm not sure why he thinks she wants him to talk in a falsetto every time he mentions pink or princesses, but nonetheless, his effort to be kind to her is lovely, even if I later have to help undo the stereotypes by demonstrating to him that, in fact, she is quite as fond of racing cars as she is of dressing up in her pink fairy princess costume. (I swear, I'll post a follow up to let you know if this prediction comes true.)

The bottom line is: the show is sure to be impressive, fun, and delightful. AND, thanks to the good folks at MomCentral and Feld Entertainment, you too can get a great deal on tickets if you are in the Detroit area at the end of February. You can get a big discount by mentioning the code MOM when you purchase your tickets. This will entitle you to a set of four tickets for any performance for just $44. (Not valid on rink-side or VIP seats.)

This discount is only valid for shows at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Wednesday, February 25 - Sunday, March 1. There are matinee performance on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, in addition to the evening performances throughout the run. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or at 1-800-745-3000.

What could be better than the movies come to life?

Circus! Circus!

This has been a crazy busy week, and I find that here I am at Thursday without even mentioning the highlight of my kids' November -- the circus last weekend. I haven't been to the circus since I was a very little girl, and I think I might have been more excited than they were beforehand because I had images in my mind of what I'd been missing all these years. My memories of the circus (apart from the endless hours I spent pretending to be a bare-back rider on our toy spring horse) are of lots of very beautiful women in sparkly costumes adorned with long flowing plumes. I don't know if these women ever really existed at the circus. It would certainly seem that long peacock tails and Las Vegas showgirl plumes don't make a whole lot of sense for a trapeze artists. But those are the women in my mind: spangled costumes with fluffy feathery tails and plumes on their heads, standing on top of cantering horses.

The bare-back rider was, of course, the only act not in the particular iteration of Ringling Brothers' Circus that we saw on Saturday.

But it's hard to argue with the grandeur of a performance that has traveled cross-country with ELEVEN elephants, ten tigers ("three white and seven orange," Son will tell you), half a dozen zebras, lots of horses, two large handfuls of dogs, and countless clowns. The Ringmaster had a voice as velvety as Patrick Stewart. The stilt walkers were enormous and funny. The acrobats amazing.

There was preshow fun -- performers of all kinds working in two small rings, and all of us able to mill around and get up close. We watched clowns walk on giant balls, acrobats do incredible things with giant piles of hula hoops, and an elephant paint a picture. I was thrilled to be so close to the beautiful giants.


Son's verdict? "They're kind of smelly."

One of the most stunning acts in the show was the sway poles. These are about 40 feet tall, and performers at the top of them are quite unafraid to hang upside down, swing towards each other, and generally astonish us with their bravery and agility.


My very favorite was the tiger tamer. Although the tricks he got them to do were pretty cool, for my money, the most impressive thing he did was before the act started. The spotlight was on the tight-rope walkers while the center ring was set up for the tigers. In the darkness, they erected the steel cage (something like a giant circular wall of chain mail) that kept tigers separated from the audience. Then they wheeled out the tigers, in containers that locked to each other to form a long tiger train. Soon, the center ring was filled with ten GIANT tigers -- plump, strong, tigers sitting each on their own stool. One tiger tamer in the middle of the ring, surrounded by ten tigers in the dark. By definition, standing in the middle of the ring, he couldn't see them all at once. But they didn't move a muscle. For a good five minutes, he murmured occasionally, moved slightly towards one tiger or another, and somehow managed to keep them all in order until the lights came up.

Why do I find this so impressive?

I only have two children, and I can't keep them sitting still and quiet for five minutes together EVER. And neither one of them weighs five hundred pounds or has razor sharp claws and teeth.

Son, of course, liked the clowns best. ("And the tigers. And the guys in that giant spinning wheel thing. And the elephants. And the horses. And the funny dogs...")


And as you know, clowning is serious business. Especially when your red nose is a little too big.

May you have some serious family fun yourselves this weekend.

Cross posted from Mommy's Martini.