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Young People’s Theatre of Chicago opened their latest season with an adaptation of Mo Willems’ beloved city bird humor in Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus The Musical at Greenhouse Theater Center. Returning to the stage after a soldout run, YPT takes this loud and bold character beyond his usual antics and fills the stage with joyful hilarity and good natured revelry that will warm the heart as the weather begins to turn.
Centered on the opening book of the series, which features the endeavors of the pigeon (played by Brade Bradshaw) to become a bus driver (played by Karla Serrato), the musical goes beyond that singular tale and includes highlights from other favorite books in the series including The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, The Duckling Gets a Cookie, and The Pigeon Wants a Puppy. Under the direction of Randy White, the entertaining personalities of Willems’ characters come alive on stage using puppetry (designed and built by Rick Lyon), smart yet simple costuming (Cindy Moon), and Chicago-centered set work (Jaqueline Penrod).
As the pigeon traverses the city in his very pigeon ways, sniffing out hot dogs, ice cream cones, and new perches, he encounters people along the way who continually utter the phrase, fly off bird, with a mix of annoyance and disdain for this blue feathered creature. When the pigeon sets his sights on the bus, we watch as he decides to either help or fly away from what could be a big public transit calamity. Filled with CTA—the most beloved of institutions—humor that adults accompanying their littles will enjoy most, the true moments of outright side-splitting laughter come from the collection of people and things that pop in and out of this cityscape on stage.
The two most memorable characters besides the pigeon himself were the bus engine (Tamsen Glaser) and the Little Old Lady (Dakota Hughes). Glaser and Hughes both had the audience in uproarious laughter with their impeccably timed physical humor and commitment to bus gas and bird seed. The cast was rounded out by Jake Elkins who played the stereotypical businessman and Marquis Bundy, the teenager, who was ready to be or name new super heroes.
You won’t have to dig too deep to look inside your “heart dog” and find your pigeon's perseverance to keep on flapping your way towards the box office for Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus The Musical. The show itself will leave you smiling and so will your contribution when you buy your own pigeon, clad in an elf hat, or finger puppets, since proceeds go to YPT’s Fund the Gap campaign, which makes sure that all students get the chance to see productions like this no matter their financial ability.
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus The Musical by Young People's Theatre is on stage at Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., until December 22. Tickets are $21.50 to $30.50. Run time is 55 minutes. For more information or tickets, visit yptchi.org.
For more information on this and other productions, see theatreinchicago.com.