This review is from our Chicago editors when George visited their city.

Whether your family reads the books or watches the cartoons, this show excels at bringing the characters to life. Curious George LIVE! is a new musical that is packed from start to finish with songs that tell the tale of George’s adventure from New York City to the streets of Rome. In this original story, George sets out to prove to the world that his friend, Chef Pisghetti, makes the best meatballs in the world. Performances of the show run between Thursday, January 28 - Sunday, January 31, 2010 at the Sears Center Arena in Hoffman Estates. Tickets are priced from $15-$38.

The production successfully creates a believable translation of the characters to the stage. The Man with the Yellow Hat, Professor Wiseman, Chef Pisghetti, and the Doorman are protrayed by actors who do spot-on impersonations of the characters voices and mannerisms. Their larger-then-life costumes translate perfectly. George’s animal friends Hundley and Gnocchi are cleverly depicted through simple puppetry. Of course George is the most difficult to portray. They did a great job with the costume, and tried their best to match his frenetic movement with some pretty cool tumbling. My 5 year-old was a little disappointed though. He wanted to see more climbing and “monkey stuff,” and I would agree. Overall they did an exceptionally believable job bringing these beloved characters to life.

Our favorite musical numbers were the opening productions of the first and second acts. “Special Delivery” followed by “Big Brown Box” makes for a bustling street scene. Both song are very catchy - they were what the kids were singing during intermission. The second act opens with a super fun song, “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” There is a cute gimmick with flashlights that makes for a cool visual effect. This song revolves around George stowing away on an airplane to Italy. It started the second half of the show off on a great note.

The low point for me is the pacing of the show. Pretty much the entire story is told through song. At times this is very successful, but at other times I would have preferred some of the story to have been told through dialog to move the production along. There was a great deal of antsy-ness going around around me near the end of the first act. The show is 1 hour 40 minutes long including a 15 minute intermission. For this age group I think a far shorter running time is more successful. The 5 year-olds I was with were able to sit through the entire show, but at times they were bored.

Even with some faults this is a fun show. From the festive lobby displays, to the intermission’s strolling vendors, to the great characterizations, this is a cute show for the pre-school aged Curious George fans in your life.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 4:06 am and is filed under Events, Places to Go. If you use RSS, you can subscribe to the RSS feed , or if you would rather receive an e-mail, please subscribe to the e-mail in the lower right hand corner of this page. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.