An actor and parent reviews "Goodnight Moon"

Another family review, this time from local actor Dan Spiegelman, who joined us with his son for opening night of "Goodnight Moon."

Sharva Maynard, Matt Wolfe and Jayne Muirhead (operating the Mouse puppet). Photo by Chris Bennion.

I was super excited to be bringing my almost four year-old Ben to see "Goodnight Moon." I have an affinity for SCT; I feel like I grew up there between the plays I saw as a kid and the classes I took.

Ben has always enjoyed the book and was pretty excited about going to a show also. As soon as the play started, he was completely engaged, smiling and laughing the whole time.

After the show, he went down to meet all of the actors and was stoked that Matt Wolfe (Bunny) signed his poster. We have the poster hanging in his bedroom now and he voluntarily tells the story of how we went to see the play "Goodnight Moon," and how it was very, very funny.

"Goodnight Moon." runs through June 7th, 2009.

Family review: "Goodnight Moon"

Another review from Kathryn L. (you may remember her "A Tale of Two Cities" review), ably assisted by sister Rachel and brother Jared.


I am a fourteen-year-old girl, and I am her twelve-year-old sister. We have known Goodnight Moon since we were little girls. We’ve always liked it, the colors, the little details, the rhyming of the words. We have a brother who is six. Goodnight Moon has been read to all of us since we were little, and we have a copy of that and Runaway Bunny handy at all times on the bookshelf in our house.

Auston James, Matt Wolfe, Sharva Maynard and Jayne Muirhead. Photo by Chris Bennion.

When we went to the Seattle Children’s Theatre’s play version of the book, we were all excited to see how the much-loved children’s book would be transformed into a full play. The set delighted me and my sister who spent the last five minutes before the play started discussing the set and playing find the piece.

“Look! There’s the curtain rod.”

“It even has the arrow at the tip!”

“I know. Hey! The bears-”

“In their chairs? I know!”

“And the picture of the Runaway Bunny!”

“And the mitten and kitten!”

“And the night table and the brush!”

“And the bowl full of mush!”

We had a lot of fun, and afterwards, my brother said “The set was just like the book, but full of surprises!” He said he couldn’t wait to see it again with his school (an outing he is still patiently waiting for), and the next night during dinner while we were still in the kitchen eating, he even left to act out scenes from the play for us.

The acting and the colorful singing had my mom wanting to accuire [sic] a cd of the songs sung in the play, and my brother saying: “It wasn’t just a play, it was a musi-cool!”

"Goodnight Moon" runs through June 7th in SCT's Eve Alvord Theatre.

An artist and parent reviews "Goodnight Moon"

In addition to our fabulous SCT Review Crew, we sometimes invite members of the community to write reviews of our productions. In the last year, we've had guest reviewers from Hugo House, 826 Seattle and TeenTix. This past weekend, we invited local solo performer/writer/actor/educator Maria Glanz and her son Finn (age 4 and 3/4) to see "Goodnight Moon" and share their experience with us.


Opening Night: We walk into the Eve Alvord Theatre at SCT, and after climbing the steps and choosing a bench, we turn – and our smiles stretch all the way up to our eyes as we look at the Great Green Room come to full-size life in Jennifer Lupton’s wonderful set. Finn’s first words, as always, are:

“What’s that?”

And we look at the giant windows, with stars shining through, and the picture of the Cow Jumping Over the Moon, and Finn says:

“There’s Kittens! And a Little House… and the Bowl Full of Mush!” I notice the title, Goodnight Moon, tucked cleverly on a big tall book spine on stage left, right behind the piano. Before the play even begins we are falling into another world, something that always seems to occur effortlessly at SCT. Even when I know how much long, hard work goes into these wonderful productions – it always looks effortless, easy, magical.

And when the performance begins, the magic grows. Finn whispers to me, “I see a Big Red Balloon!” and we watch the balloon follow his friend Bunny across the stage. The script, wonderfully adapted by Chad Henry – who also wrote the marvelous music and lyrics - begins with little Bunny saying “Hello!” to all of his friends, the clocks and socks and mittens, and we feel his joy as we settle into his world.

Matt Wolfe as Bunny. Photo by Chris Bennion.

The cast is perfect. Matt Wolfe shines as the boy Bunny, playing with delight through his adventures. His easy, funny, happy performance gives a strong central core to the show. Auston James, Jayne Muirhead and Sharva Maynard play multiple roles beautifully. Jayne’s Little Mouse was one of Finn’s favorites, and mine too, with her dry sense of humor and perfect timing. And boy - can these four sing and dance! For me, the songs were a highlight of the evening. Music Director Mark Rabe plays the piano (with help from Matt for one funny number) and he’s terrific. The Three Little Bears sitting on Chairs come right down from the wall and tap dance through a fabulous game of musical chairs, thanks to the choreography of Marianne Roberts. And the Cat with a Fiddle, Dog with a Drum, and Dish Who Ran Away with the Spoon make three fun appearances, singing the tale of Clarabelle the Cow and her efforts to jump over the moon. All of the costumes, designed by Cathy Hunt, are fantastic. The Dish in particular is breathtaking – I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I also liked Auston’s very dapper Tooth Fairy, although I don’t think Finn quite understood my delight.

Finn did love the fire when it came to life with eyes opening and rolling. And he was both a tiny bit scared of, and then completely entranced by, the mystery and wonder of exactly what is inside that Little House. I won’t spoil it here by describing it – the wonder is worth the wait. Another favorite moment for both of us was a guest appearance by The Runaway Bunny book, gorgeously rendered, with the story told through another toe-tapping song.

Auston James, Matt Wolfe, Sharva Maynard and Jayne Muirhead. Photo by Chris Bennion.

It’s clear that the cast and crew, led by SCT Artistic Director Linda Hartzell, love what they are doing - and even more, love these books by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd. When theatre is made with this kind of love, we in the audience receive such a tremendous gift. I could also feel and see the spirit and gifts of Doug Paasch all through the production; I only wish my Finn could have met this lovely man [longtime SCT Puppet Master Paasch passed away unexpectedly this past fall]. But I’m grateful that he and countless other kids gets to enjoy his puppets, still.

Finn was tired as we were heading home last night, and didn’t much want to talk – so I wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about the show. This morning, I heard him talking to himself in his room, and he was saying:

“We saw a Fire with Eyes. We saw a Big Giant Runaway Bunny Book! Just like Finn’s little Runaway Bunny book!”

And he had both books out – Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny – and he wasn’t reading them (they weren’t even open, actually) – he was holding them up and dancing them in front of his eyes, playing with all the memories held right in his own little hands.


"Goodnight Moon" runs through June 7th in SCT's Eve Alvord Theatre.