“If you can conceive it, you can achieve it!”
With the world-premiere of Goodnight Moon, Seattle Children’s Theatre has proven this theorem by creating one of the most delightful and charming theatrical experiences in recent memory. Based on the beloved children’s book written sixty years ago by Margaret Wise Brown with pictures by Clement Hurd; Linda Hartzell’s team of creative wizards have succeeded in capturing all the charm and magic that has captured the imagination of several generations of children. With script, music and lyrics penned by long-time SCT collaborator Chad Henry, this new adaptation should have a life and success beyond the premiere at least as long as the book itself if not longer.
The magic at the heart of this gentle little story is the innocent imagination of the little bunny that sleeps in the green room that is his nursery. One of the charming devices of Margaret Brown’s books for children is her device of making the protagonist and many of the other characters animals. The SCT production honors this device using four actors to portray or manipulate the characters or puppets respectively. The costumes by Linda Ross subtly represent each of the animals while not becoming cliché animal costumes allowing the smaller children in the audience to fully utilize their imagination to “conceive” each of these characters.
And that is what is truly remarkable about the production—the extent to which the young audience is asked to journey with the bunny into his imagination. I attended a weekday matinee that was filled with parents and children ranging in age from pre-K through upper elementary. The production played in SCT’s Eve Alvord Theatre that is the smaller of their two venues seating 275 on comfortable raked bench seating. The stage is very small at forty feet wide and twenty-two feet deep. With a full boxed set like the one for Goodnight Moon, the playing space is reduced even more.
As mentioned earlier, the scenic design by Jennifer Lupton takes the simple illustrations by Clement Hurd and places it in three dimensions right before the audience in this very intimate setting. The magic and imagination of the design team is revealed in stages throughout the production. It seems clear to me that the team used the illustrations as a spring board as to how they might create a full length musical from a book with so little text. Literally every element of the design is either used or manipulated by the actors or offstage puppeteers. The pictures in the little bunny’s room reveal inner stages where puppets interact with the performers onstage. The moon and stars appear, disappear and move within the large picture windows upstage. The mantle clock and urns dance and move. The stuffed toys are manipulated by actors and the mouse and cats that inhabit the bunny’s playroom are simple puppets that are manipulated by the performers not unlike the way in which children play at dolls or with their stuffed animals when left to their own imaginations.
I have seen numerous productions now that have utilized puppets created by Doug Paasch for SCT productions; puppets ranging in complexity from the magical over-sized Dragon in The Magic City to an amazing giant spider in last season’s production of Sleeping Beauty to this production where simple stuffed rag dolls and animals create a touching and lyrical vignette with only a simple lullaby sung by the actors who simultaneously manipulate the soft toys. This moment came almost at the very end of the performance and even though it seemed to be the major wiggle spot for the smaller children, the older children and adults were mesmerized by the hypnotic quality. I certainly understand why it falls where it does in the script leading to the final denouement of the story, but I fear that it will cause the vignette/song to be perceived as a false ending. I also wonder how the moments with no dialogue will end up on the page once the script is published (and there is no doubt that it will.)
As to the script itself, the story, as fleshed out by Chad Henry moves along at a nice pace with approximately 12-15 songs spaced evenly throughout. The musical numbers, ranging from soft beautiful lullabies to Jolson-esque soft-shoe to jazzy rag and to a rousing tap section with the Three Bears; allow the story to move along while adding not only to the imagination of the Bunny, but to the young members of the audience. From the moment where the primary characters are introduced—Bunny, Mouse, two Cats and the Old Woman-that-says-“Shhhh,” the audience is clearly meant to associate with Bunny and his unwillingness to go to sleep. As anyone who has children or remembers their own childhood, no matter how long ago; the universal truth regarding a child’s unwillingness to shut their eyes and go to sleep will resonate strongly. The humor of the Little Bunny as he tries valiantly to keep the covers over him, to struggle with a pillow that has a life of its own, to talking in imaginary gibberish with his ever-present Red Balloon, the pathos, sight-gags and intricate puppetry all serve to enhance rather than distract from the momentum of the story such as it is.
There are not many theatres that can pull off such extraordinary feats of magic with such ease, and the resources of SCT—the designers, the shops and their artisans deserve high praise for creating this delightful masterwork. A few of the highlights of this production include a black-light soft shoe number within one of the picture windows where the audience sees only a pair of white feet and white hands in the “Mr. Nobody” song reminiscent of “Mr. Celophane” from the musical Chicago; the three musical numbers with the ensemble portraying members of a circus supporting the puppet-show of Clarabelle the Cow as she attempts to jump over the moon; a very delightful number “Never Get Away” featuring Bunny and Ensemble in front of a giant book that is pulled out of the wall that becomes the backdrop for the song. This section pays homage to other books by Margaret Brown and Clement Hurd such as Runaway Bunny with pages that are turned by the performers, each becoming a backdrop for the verses of the song. And as I mentioned earlier there were several humorous and touching vignettes with Bunny interacting with magical sight-gags or simple puppet moments that were pure theatre magic.
I had been eager to see this production as reviews had been pouring in from sources all around the
Goodnight Moon continued its run through March 10th, 2007 at Seattle Children’s Theatre.
