Theater Thursday - Love That Dog and Boeing Boeing

We were given free tickets to Love That Dog for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own.

What: Love That Dog

Jeryl Marcus

jeryl:marcus@gmail.com

​Blog: Says Me Says Mom

We were given free tickets to Love That Dog for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own

Where: Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres

502 W 53rd Street (bet. 10th & 11th Avenues)

New York, NY

Who: Ages 8 and Up

When: Now through March 5, 2017

Me - Love That Dog was about a kid who was learning about poetry in school. He was played by a man though. He was a really good actor. There was a lot of poetry. Some were famous poems like a couple by Robert Frost. I had never heard them before though. I liked them. They were nice. Other poems were made up for the show. They were supposed to have been made up by the kid in the show. His name was Jack. The set was cool. They used projections to make it seem like it was different places. I liked the way they made it seem like his poems were tacked to the wall. At first, Jack didn't like poetry, and he didn't know why he had to learn it because he thought it was boring. Then, throughout  the show he realized that poems were really fun, and they weren't as boring as he thought originally. At the end, he wrote a poem about the the dog he used to have, Sky. At the show, before you went into the theater, they gave kids a piece of paper. On one side, it had interviews with the people in that show and another show that the theater group was doing. On the other side, there was a space where you could write your own poems. You could write one Haiku and one limerick. I started writing a Haiku but I haven't finished it yet. It's going to be about Broadway. I love Broadway! I haven't written my limerick yet. People of all ages would like this show.

Mom - Love That Dog is the story of a boy who discovers the joy of poetry. It is based on the book of the same name by Sharon Creech. The great thing about the show is that it takes the children in the audience on the same journey as the boy in the book. It helps them to see what is great about poetry and inspires them to write poems of their own. They are further encouraged to write their own poems because when they arrive at the theater they are given a paper  that tells them about a couple of different kinds of poems. They are also given space on the paper to write one of each of  the poems described on their own. The show also teaches children about some of the classic poets and their poems. Several poets including Robert Frost and Walter Dean Myers are mentioned in the show. The boy in the show particularly loves Walter Dean Myers and even gets him to appear at his school. Lots of poems are read in the show including many poems by the main character, Jack as well as some famous poems including The Pasture by Robert Frost. The star of this one man show, Derek Christopher Murphy does a really great job in the role. He is very good at capturing the innocence and joy of youth which helps the children in the audience relate to him better. His enthusiasm for the role is so infectious that even older children and adults can't help enjoying themselves. It is just an all around sweet and entertaining show for people of all ages.

For more about the show or to order tickets go to https://nycchildrenstheater.org/shows-and-programs/ltd/.
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We were given free tickets to Boeing Boeing for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own.

What: Boeing Boeing

Where: Kelsey Theatre
             1200 Old Trenton Rd.
             West Windsor, NJ

Who: Teens and Up

When: Friday, Saturday and Sunday through February 26.

Me - Boeing Boeing was a good show. It was about a man who was engaged to 3 woman at one time. The three woman were all flight attendants, and they didn't know about each other. The show took place in Paris but one of the flight attendants was American, one was German, and one was Italian. There were some funny parts in the show. It was funny when the flight attendants kept almost running into each other. There was also a housekeeper. She was funny. She had to keep track of which woman was at home at which time. It was funny because the man had a picture up of whatever fiancee was home at the time so the housekeeper had to keep changing the picture depending who was home. She also had to keep changing the style of meals that they ate because they all liked different kinds of food. She changed the flowers on the table too. There was a different color of flowers for each of the woman. One was red, one was blue, and one was yellow. They also dressed in those colors. The American was red. The German was yellow. The Italian was blue.  In the theater, they made it seem like you were really on a airplane. There were people wakling around before the show and during intermission dressed like flight attendants.Also, the playbills came in barf bags. Before, my mom told me it was to make it seem like we were on a airplane, I thought it was in case you didn't like the show. I actually thought I wasn't going to like the show at first, but I did. It was not bad.

Mom - Boeing Boeing is basically a bedroom farce. It is the story of one man engaged to three woman and trying to keep them all from finding out about each other. However, it is a little more enjoyable than many other shows of the genre. The characters are more interesting, and the show is not so predictable. Even though you know going in that the show is going to end up happily, you don't know exactly what that end will be. The Kelsey cast does a nice job with the material and each of the cast is good in their roles. All of the woman characters in the show are flight attendants, and I really like the way they carry the airline theme throughout the evening. The playbills are handed out in airline sickness bags, and there are people costumed in flight attendant uniforms walking around talking to people in the audience before the show and at the intermission. At intermission, they even lug out an airline service cart and attempt to sell people tiny bottles of water for exorbitant prices. The people playing the roles of the flight attendants in the audience were so good that I wasn't sure if they were being serious or not about selling the water. All in all, it was an enjoyable evening that made me nostalgic for a time when flying on an airplane could actually be fun and not just a worrisome chore.

For more information or to order tickets  about Boeing Boeing or to find out how to order tickets go to http://www.kelseyatmccc.org/Boeing,%20Boeing.shtml.

And that's our view. Tune in tomorrow for Funtivity Friday.

Photo credits: All Love That Dog production photos by Carol Rosegg