Harold and the Purple Crayon

Tonight we went to the Children's Theater Company to see Harold and the Purple Crayon.  Eryn's getting a little old for that sort of play, but she was interested in going and I had purchased the ticket package for this year, so that was good enough.  Next year we're hoping to swap in one or two plays for older audiences at Theatre in the Round or elsewhere.  Mix it up a bit.

I have to say, as you get older, and you have more experiences under your belt, some things just get much stranger when you make associations.  For instance, Harold and the Purple Crayon would be most accurately described by me, in a mental game of Apples to Apples, with the phrase, "Nutbuster the Ballet, but with better dancing, more singing, way better scenery, and more footie pajamas."  Why?  Because what other conclusion can you draw when there's a grown man doing interpretive dance in his pajamas?  The  only things missing were the blow up doll and the bottle of vodka.  Although I was worried we were headed to a fetish moment with the Crayon Girls each pulled out a piece of paper and slapped it on their chests for him to write on.

It really was a bit of an acid trip, going from (a grown Asian man in blue footie pajamas) singing a very "Under the Sea" song in much the same voice as Ariel, to an even more disturbing laugh that sounded almost exactly like Ariel's, to a rocket number that reminded me very much of Meatloaf singing in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, to an alien lovefest funk/disco number that brought back the acid trips that were the puppet portion of The Wiggles "Fruit Salad Yummy Yummy".

Haven't ever had the pleasure, here ya go...below. But I would recommend this play to someone my younger niece's age with an interest in music and dance. The staging was beautiful, and they did a variety of techniques to communicate how the crayon was drawing the purple line. Well done, just very weird with my play-going background.