A citizen (Dan Rosales, left) and Cat Kid (Sonia Roman), aided by the puppet Molly, try to contain Molly’s siblings, a horde of destructive flying tadpoles, and get them into the swamp.
Dav Pilkey has endeared himself to children—and adults—through his graphic novels and multiple hit comic-book series. Beginning in 1990, he created the bestselling series Cat Kid Comic Club. Now, playwright and lyricist Kevin Del Aguila (best known for his Drama Desk Award-winning performance in the musical Some Like It Hot) and composer Brad Alexander have adapted the series into Cat Kid Comic Club The Musical.
Naomi (Markia Nicole Smith-left) provokes her sibling Melvin (Dan Rosales).
As beloved as the series is for children, it is as improbable as it gets for an adult. A bionic fish becomes foster dad to 21 incorrigible tadpoles-cum-frogs, and with the help of a cat-kid on figurative steroids, tames them through four days of intensive comic-book-making therapy. The endearing part of this all is that, aside from a few “time-out-rock” exiles, there is no punishment to be meted out, and between the peacemaking mascots fish-foster dad Flippy (Jamie LaVerdiere) and the hyper Cat Kid (Sonia Roman), they keep the frog bunch under wraps—with two exceptions.
Curly (Brian Owen) and Naomi (Markia Nicole Smith), the most entertaining frogs, are hopelessly embroiled in sibling rivalry, usually with Naomi the provocateur and Curly the recipient-victim exchanging brilliant banter. Perhaps spurred on by Naomi’s taunts and a desire to disprove them, Curly aptly demonstrates the flip side of his persecuted persona. His imagination takes a bizarre but sidesplitting turn, as he creates a comic book about Dennis, a toothbrush who wants to become a lawyer for dinosaurs.
Melvin (Rosales, left) as Supa Fail is cheered on by Curly (Owen). Photographs by Jeremy Daniels.
I wanna be a lawyer!
A lawyer for dinosaurs
I’ll cross-examine, redirect,
Say I can’t, but I object!
No further questions, hear my plea—
I want to be
A lawyer for dinosaurs!
In his fire-engine-red toothbrush costume, with a booming voice, Curly travels back in time to defend a dinosaur falsely accused of eating a baby. The toothbrush/dinosaur lawyer becomes a champion and hero of the extinct species. The cast, who have multiple roles as frogs, fish and a cat, are superb vocalists, from the serene soprano Poppy (L.R. Davidson) to the earthy, attention-grabbing Naomi.
Jen Caprio’s costumes are vivid and eye-catching, as are Cameron Anderson’s sets. David Lander’s lighting reflects an almost primordial ecosystem for the swamp and a bright, get-down-to-business environment for Days 1 to 4 of the comic book–making workshop. The bird, frog, and other sound effects of co–sound designers Jesse Derosiers and Scott Stauffer resonate in the theater prior to the show and generate an intermittent cacophony of jungle and rain-forest background noise.
Emmarose Campbell’s puppet frogs are generally outliers but green-gloved puppet Molly, worn and vocalized by Cat Kid, is also a tadpole who alternately reprimands her 21 tadpole siblings—“You’re all a buncha ’fraidy frogs, scared of making mistakes! You’re so terrified of messing up, you don’t even try!”—and cheers them on—“Hey, guys! Last one in the swamp is a stinky pile of algae!”
Naomi (Smith, left) and Melvin (Dan Rosales) finally cooperate with each other to create the final comic books.
The costumed “living” frogs, such as Naomi, are interspersed among rows of colorful, smiling, conforming stick-puppet frogs seated at desks, who intermittently flip around in unison.
Under director and choreographer Marlo Hunter, the performers bring these incongruously matched characters to life. It’s the humans cast as frogs who catalyze the action and sometimes the trouble—Melvin (Dan Rosales), who is constantly teased for being a nerd; Poppy, who quietly sits in the back of the classroom most of the time; feisty and contentious Naomi; and Curly, who constantly “tells on” Naomi. They may be frogs, but their characters closely resemble human children in many ways.
See yourself as others see you. That’s possibly one of Pilkey’s and Del Aguila’s objectives. Even in a comic book, one can find a character with whom to identify and whose traits resemble one’s own or those of a friend or family member. With a bit of constructive engagement, the attention of children (and often adults) can often be refocused in a more productive, conflict-reducing way.
Each character channels his or her own energies into comic books that indulge their fantasies and give them permission to be superheroes, distinguish them from one another in meaningful ways, and garner approbation from Cat Kid and a flustered foster dad. Del Aguila and Alexander’s clever and well-delivered songs advance these objectives. They make the audience laugh. I just wonder if, at least for the younger audiences (the recommended grades 1 to 5), the lyrics of “The Cute, Little, Fluffy Cloud of Death,” and “Chubbs McSpiderbutt” (with the frequent repetition of “butt”) aren’t a bit much. Nevertheless, Cat Kid aficionados don’t seem much disturbed by them.
The TheaterWorksUSA production of Cat Kid Comic Club The Musical runs at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher St.) through Aug. 27. Performances are Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays at 4 and 7 p.m., Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., and Sundays at noon and 3 p.m. For tickets or more information, call the box office at (212) 402-8249 or visit twusa.org/catkid.
