THEATRE REVIEW

DECEMBER 2022 | Volume 222

 

Chris Lam’s Carousel Theatre production of this musical adaptation of The3 Little Pigs is a crowd-pleaser. It certainly was for my granddaughters, ages five and eight. Every kid in the audience seemed to know the basic story, and their pleasure got boosted by the songs as well as a certain amount of mugging from the title characters. The addition of the piglets’ mother (lively Steffanie Davis) and a charismatic wolf (superb KamyarPazandeh) was icing on the cake.

Little piglet Cha (Angela Chu) and her big brothers Siu (Frankie Cottrell) and Bao (Tanner Zerr) are turning the family home into a pig sty, mama sings, so she decides it’s time they move out and live on their own. After all, they sing, the world is perfect for a pig. Environmentally conscious Cha will build her house of straw, muscleman Siu builds his of twigs, and brainy Bao will go the bricks route. Fortunately for each, a “convenient tradesperson” (Davis) comes along carrying the building materials for each of their houses.

Unfortunately for them, the Big Bad Wolf is also afoot in the forest—though he introduces himself with a song that says he’s neither big nor bad, just misunderstood. Kazandeh has a strong voice and just the right combination of ferocity and silliness to keep the young audience entranced and not too afraid. He’s assisted in that song by Stephanie Elgersma’s cute bird puppets who, sadly, don’t reappear again.

You know what happens then. Houses get built, some blown down, and the wolf makes a strategic error sliding down Bao’s chimney into his cooking pot. Mama and her piglets seem destined to live happily ever after. My grandgirls were content but I mourned the magnificently entertaining but fatally self-confident wolf.

 

 

 

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