Hog heaven: Wolf and pigs have their musical day in court in
“catchy and clever” musical by award-winning theater company
HANOVER, NH—The award-winning Dallas Children’s Theater (DCT) presents the real story of the Big, Bad Wolf in The True Story Of the 3 Little Pigs!, coming to the Hop’s Spaulding Auditorium on Sunday, May 12, at 3 pm.
Based on the hilarious popular book of the same title, this musical courtroom drama begins where the book leaves off: Alexander T. Wolf, a.k.a. Big Bad, finally gets to tell his side of the story—and the audience determines the verdict!
“This story features the outcast, the outsider.It will appeal to a child’s sense of fairness and fair play as it debunks stereotypes and teaches children about tolerance,” says the director, Dallas veteran musical theater director Cheryl Denson.
Critics have praised DCT’s broadly appealing production. “The supple five-person ensemble, cleverly costumed, delights…[the] jazzy music, created for this production, is catchy and clever and keeps the humor humming,” wrote The Dallas Morning News. Pegasus News called the show “light, fun, fast-paced, full of puns for the grown-ups and silliness for the kids. The music…will have you humming all the way home.”
The book The True Story Of the 3 Little Pigs!, by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide since its 1989 publication. Like the pair’s Caldecott Honor book, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, Pigs takes a classic tale and turns it upside down. The musical stage adaptation—which premiered in Chicago’s Lifeline Theatre in 2007—honors the book as it stretches its story further with high drama, hyperbole, puppets and rollicking original music. A past collaborator with such greats as Marvin Gaye, Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, Barry White, composer S-Ankh Rasa explores multiple jazz and popular music styles in this hour of hilarious and melodious hoggy havoc.
Choreography by Jeremy Dumont complements the many jazz styles with smooth, cool, easy moves and upbeat musical theater pizzazz. A recipient of the DFW Theater Critics Forum Award, Dumont has choreographed for theaters and schools across the country. Set Designer Randal Wright has taken cues from Smith’s illustrations, but also bases his design on the notion that pigs dominate in this particular world. Thus piggy-pink lights and pig shapes appearthroughout the set in subtleways, with a wink to the adults in the audience.
The play begins outside the courthouse in Piggsylvania. Alexander T. Wolf is on trial for the murder of two of the three little pigs. Fast-talking reporter pig Lillian Magillclaims nobody has ever heard the Wolf’s side of the story, and she is hungry for the truth. The Honorable Prudence Pig, a tough-as-nails judge with a weakness for musical theater, presides over the case. A sharp, smooth-talking lawyer pig named Julia is the prosecuting attorney, and she always gets her way. Al (the wolf) is a soulful charmer with a love of gourmet cooking and the fine arts. He takes the stand in his own defense, but it looks as though the piggy world is against him. True, he is a carnivore to the core, but is he also the victim of a media frame-up? Will Magill get her journalistic glory? GUILTY or NOT GUILTY? When all the witness statements are in, the audience becomes the jury and determines Al’s fate!
Recommended for ages 5 and up.
2013-2014 will mark DCT's 30th season of producing professional theater for a multi-generational audience in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and its 19th season of touring the U.S. and abroad. TIME Magazine has recognized DCT as one of the top five theaters in the United States performing for young audiences and families; and DCT has been designated as an American Masterpieces Touring Artist by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Download high-resolution photos and Word version of press release
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Founded in 1962, the Hopkins Center for the Arts is a multi-disciplinary academic, visual and performing arts center dedicated to uncovering insights, igniting passions, and nurturing talents to help the Dartmouth community engage imaginatively and contribute creatively to our world. Each year the Hop presents more than 300 live events and films by visiting artists as well as Dartmouth students and the Dartmouth community, and reaches more than 22,000 Upper Valley residents and students with outreach and arts education programs. During the 2012-13 season, the Hop celebrates its 50th anniversary with heightened programming that emphasizes the Hop’s missions of mentoring young artists, supporting the development of new work, and providing a laboratory for participation and experimentation in the arts. The Hop’s 50th celebration is one of the major elements in Dartmouth’s designation of 2012-13 as the college’s Year of the Arts.
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CALENDAR LISTING:
Dallas Children’s Theater presents The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
So he huffed and he puffed and he blew their little house down…or did he? In this “catchy and clever” (Dallas Morning News) musical adaptation of Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith’s irreverent 1989 book, the Wolf finally tells his side of the story—and the audience decides his fate. Rated by TIME as one of the top five youth theaters in the nation, this company hams it up in rare style.Recommended for ages 5 and up.
Sunday, May 12, 3 pm
Spaulding Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover NH
Tickets $18/23; Dartmouth students $10; 18 & under $13/18
Information: Hopkins Center Box Office, 603.646.2422 or hop.dartmouth.edu
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CONTACT:
Rebecca Bailey, Publicity Coordinator/Writer
Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College
693.646.3991