ShowBizRadio

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake is yet another offering of exceptional Children’s Theatre from Adventure Theatre. Once again, they take a simple, beloved children’s book and bring it to life with a great cast and production team. The audience, adults and children alike, could not stop laughing as Eddie, the cat, took Emily, his owner, on a wild adventure from the kitchen to the beach to the gym to the park to the museum. Throw in a boat ride, swinging on monkey vines, and a little bit of opera, and you have sheer magic.

The set was beautiful and simple. It turned and easily represented each of the various locales. Each locale was also filled with larger-than-life props, including over-sized cupcakes to eat, an over-sized vacuum that tried to eat Emily, and the most disgustingly awesome over-sized hairball. The only complaint with the props and staging was that there were over-sized sprinkles left on the floor after the first scene that remained even as locales changed. A few seconds to better sweep the sprinkles would have kept the more discerning eyes from being distracted by them throughout. Still, I am sure the young audience members were so captivated that they didn’t mind.

Both Branda Lock (Emily) and Eddie (Linden Tailor) were excellent. They kept their energy high and really connected with the audience. They also had ample opportunity to show off their incredible range of talents, including Lock’s stunning operatic soprano and Tailor’s nimble gymnastic skills. Tailor also did an excellent job of truly embodying a cat in his movements and mannerisms, and Lock was aptly childlike.

If you are looking for a great way to spend an afternoon with young people, you should definitely get tickets to Adventure Theater’s If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. The only disclaimer I would give is that, in the early part of the show, there was a lot of yelping and chasing, as Eddie tried to avoid hairball medicine, and several of the youngest patrons became upset and had to be taken out. So, only bring children under three if they are not easily startled by loud noises.

Cast

• Emily: Branda Lock
• Eddie: Linden Tailor

Production

• Director: Jerry Whiddon
• Playwright: Renee Calarco
• Assistant Director: Jason Schlafstein
• Costume Design: Kathleen Geldard
• Lighting Design: Jason Arnold
• Scenic Designer: Hannah J. Crowell
• Sound Designer: Neil McFadden
• Props Designer: Andrea “Dre” Moore
• Movement Coach & Choreographer: Karin Abromaitis
• Stage Manager: Ryan Maxwell
• Scenic Artist: Sasha Goldstein

Disclaimer: Adventure Theatre provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.