The Dallas Children's Theater production of If You Give a Pig a Party is a sure-fire hit for the three-to-eight year-old crowd. Based on Laura Numeroff's book and adapted for the stage by DCTs Nancy Schaeffer, it relates the story of an impish Pig (Beth Albright) dressed in a pink sweatsuit and pink sneakers and sporting a curly white tail and early Sally Struthers hair-do. Then a Girl (Rebecca Paige) decides to throw a party for the Pig for no special reason, but alas, nobody is home when Pig calls her friends to invite them. What to do?
Girl and Pig set off on a search and find all Pig's friends at the Fair riding the bumper cars. They all come to the party and have a wonderful time including The Mouse (Karl Schaeffer), The Moose (Douglas Burks), The Dog (Derik Webb) and The Cat (Kineta Willow Massey).
Although this is a kiddie show, make no mistake, it is of top professional quality. All actors are adults, and four of them are members of AEA. Randel Wright's set design is a whimsical and colorful arch of painted balloons augmented by real balloons, streamers and delightful rear-screen projections that had the moppets in the audience giggling gleefully. Wright is an L.A. Drama Logue Award winner who has designed musical theater productions starring the Who's Who of Broadway.
Linda Blase's lighting design is worthy of any major production. Blase is an award-winning designer not only in Dallas but in many other cities and also Off-Broadway. Resident musical director B. Wolf wrote some clever lyrics set to such tunes as "Frere Jacques," "Bicycle Built For Two," "Skip To My Lou" and the theme songs from the original "Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Carol Burnett Show."
The actors extend their antics into the audience to the delight of all the children and end the show by inviting all the October birthday kids to stand in front of the stage for a rousing Happy Birthday salute.
