Disney’s Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation @ Irving Arts Center
—Review by Jan Farrington
Oh, that willy, nilly, silly old bear.
How nice to see him—and the gang.
And how lucky for us that Disney and Rockefeller Productions chose to start their national tour of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation right here in North Texas, at the Irving Arts Center. The place was full of kids clutching Tiggers, Piglets, and Poohs—and poking their heads out to have pictures taken “as” their favorite characters.
This is a sweet, light-hearted show (well, except for Eeyore) based of course on the A.A. Milne books and the Disney movie adaptations. It’s perfect for the preschool and early-elementary set (the scariest thing that happens is Pooh getting stuck in a honey tree) but there’s no age limit on being a fan of the stories: I know grownups who go back to read them every so often.
The tale is told with life-sized puppets, each one brought to life onstage by a single human actor. They’re the creations of American-Australian puppet master Jonathan Rockefeller, whose eye-catching work has been nominated for Drama Desk and other awards. Local theatergoers (with kids) might recall his terrific puppets for The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show at the Dallas Children’s Theater a few seasons ago.
I especially loved listening to the varied, distinctive voices the actor/puppeteers gave to their characters: Tigger and Eeyore got the biggest laughs, and deserved them. And it wasn’t just the voices: the actors’ expert control of their puppet’s movements brought each of them to vivid, comical, heart-tugging life. Actor Coldin Grundmeyer is listed as playing Winnie the Pooh, and Ross Coughlin as Christopher Robin. But the ensemble moves freely among roles, and includes: Josh Bernaski, Luke Dombroski, Kaitlyn Lunardi, Blake Rushing, Melissa Xiaolan Warren, and Hannah Lauren Wilson.
The show’s simple “Hundred Acre Wood” set has lovely clouds, pretty lighting from designer Zach Pizza, and (depending on the season) the puppeteers fill the sky with enchanting (and tiny) puppet snowflakes, birds, and bees—and one very large owl, who made the little ones eyes go wide.
No worries: the catchy songs of the Sherman Brothers are still in the show, including “Winnie the Pooh,” “The Blustery Day,” “The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers,” and “The More It Snows.” But there’s also a quite nice original score from composer Nate Edmondson filling in the soundscape. (I think the sound designer might want to rebalance things for clarity, though: at times, it felt as if some bits of dialogue were competing with the background music.)
At a prudent 80-90 minutes, the show lets out before the kids turn into pumpkins (or worse). They clapped and cheered at the end, and went home with something “stuffed with fluff” to keep the magic going.
Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh / Chubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff / Is Winnie the Pooh / Winnie the Pooh / Willy, nilly, silly old bear….
WEB: For a look at the tour stops, go to: winniethepoohshow
