“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.

“Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus! The Musical” will continue thru August 11th with performances as follows:

Wednesdays  10:00 a.m.

Thursdays     10:00 a.m.

Fridays        10:00 a.m.

Saturdays    10:00 am and 12:30 p.m.

Sundays       10:00 a.m.

Tickets are $15.75 plus tax and handling and can be reserved by calling 847-634-0200 or visit www.MarriottTheatre.com

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.

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!

The theater is located at the Marriott Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire ( just south of route 22 and east of route 21) with plenty of free parking.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review RoundUp and click at “Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus! The Musical!”