The Children's Theatre last produced its own version of "Mr. Popper's Penguins" in fall 1998. That snazzy staging was directed by noted Minneapolis choreographer Myron Johnson with a relatively big cast and a live orchestra pumping out original music by composer Mel Marvin.
In a time of tight budgets and rising production costs, CTC has chosen to import an economical new adaptation of the 1938 Richard and Florence Atwater novel.
This one-hour show, which comes from the English company Pins and Needles Productions, is clever and entertaining.
The peppy, playful music by composer Luke Bateman is matched by Richy Hughes' smart, adroit lyrics (he rhymes "winter" with "begin ta"). The creative team demonstrates plenty of comic invention. Puppet designer Nick Barnes created the show's expressive penguins. The minimalist set, by Zoe Squire, who also designed costumes, is adjusted easily to suggest far-off locales. Throw a gray-and-white fabric over a painter's cart and you get the mountains.
And the acting quartet, led by Richard Holt in the title role, is quite amiable. They give the puppet penguins emotive inner lives.
Even with all its charm, there's still a sense that we're getting something cut-rate here. This is particularly true with the backup music, which comes via prerecorded tracks.
C'est la vie, I suppose.
Directed by Pins and Needles co-artistic director Emma Earle and adapted to the stage by the whole company, this version of "Popper's" is crisply told. The action still begins in the sleepy town of Stillwater, but this time it's small-town England rather than the American setting of the original play and the 2011 movie adaptation starring Jim Carrey.
