Rick Hammerly as The Cat, Tyler Herman as The Boy, Jessi…Shearer as Sally. Photo by: Mike Horan

“It’s fun to have fun but you have to know how,” quips the Cat in the Hat, played by Rick Hammerly, in Adventure Theatre MTC’s sixth and final show in its 2012-2013 season.

As we embark upon summer and head into the July 4th weekend, truer words couldn’t possibly be said. It is fun to have fun, but as parents, do we always know how?

I can tell you that adding this fun-filled 42-minute production to the top of your Summer Bucket List, will help you earn some serious fun chops with the kids.

Me and the girls were lucky to soak the show in last week, on the eve of opening day, and it was a high energy, hilarious and quick-paced production that kept both my 4 and 7-year-old’s attention for the duration. Sometimes a play based off a book deviates from the book and it works – or it doesn’t – but it can disappoint the kids because we know they like consistency and familiarity. This particular production parallels the book perfectly, so the kids will know what to expect but because it’s happening live in front of them, it keeps them enraptured and engaged the entire time. Sally and her brother are outfitted just as you see them in the book, and I really enjoyed not just their penchant for physical comedy but their perfectly timed facial expressions to match the frolic and chaos happening throughout the show.

Alison Cenname as Thing 1 and Cassie Cope as Thing 2. Photo by: Mike Horan

Rick Hammerly is absolute perfection as the Cat in the Hat – between his timing, his inflection and his own facial expressions. My girls, especially my oldest, absolutely loved seeing child actors in the play, of course playing Thing 1 and Thing 2, and Alex Vernon plays the puppet fish exceptionally well.

Beyond the lovely set and outstanding costumes, the use of sound effects and the bubbles particularly appealed to the younger ones in the audience. If you have a hardcore bubble lover amongst your brood, I’d suggest sitting in the middle front row, unless of course your bubble lover can’t control herself and will want to jump up and pop all the bubbles, then I’d suggest sitting on the sides, towards the back, to avoid temptation….

Adventure Theatre MTC recommends this show for all ages and as many of you know,

Alex Vernon as The Fish, Jessica Shearer as Sally. Photo by: Mike Horan

often times I’ll disagree with their recommendations and suggest a child skew slightly older before you bring them, but not this time. I’d be comfortable even bringing someone as young as 2 or 2.5 to this show because it is so quick paced and relies on physical comedy – not a lot of dialogue. In short – it is a perfect, fun summer production, to escape the heat or in the case of Sally and her brother, do something fun on a rainy day.

On that note, my friend commented towards the end of the production that what they did exceptionally well was recreate the total chaos of what the inside of her house looks like after a rainy day — truer words couldn’t have been said.

Tickets are $19 each and you have until September 2 to enjoy the show. I hear tickets are selling fast and I can understand why. After the show, we enjoyed an evening carousel ride on the lovely Merry-Go-Round in Glen Echo Park and barely dodged an extended park visit. It’s always a treat heading to Adventure Theatre and Glen Echo Park – an easy way to pass a lazy summer day!

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Disclosure: I was invited as a guest of the final dress rehearsal of this production. My opinions here are all my own.

This spring has been ridiculously busy. We are regulars on the DC theater scene for kids and I’ve regretted not making it yet to a few new plays so far this season. So it was with great excitement that we headed to Imagination Stage’s “James and the Giant Peach” on Saturday for the late afternoon performance.

First – some housekeeping.  I find that even though Imagination Stage will indicate their shows are appropriate for ages 4 and up, this doesn’t work for my 4-year-old because their performances are long. Now don’t get me wrong; their performances are wonderful and creative but speaking only for my 4-year-old – anything with an intermission, that isn’t a Disney performance including fireworks and 6 foot tall characters – just isn’t going to fly. And Imagination Stage performances always seem to have an intermission, making the production at least 90 minutes long – therefore too long for my youngest. I’ve learned this the hard way, unfortunately. So on Saturday, we invited a neighbor friend who is in Kindergarten and his mom to be our guests. Off we went, two moms, a first grader and a kindergartener. I wasn’t sure what to expect because my first grader is still a little young for a Roald Dahl story, so she wasn’t familiar with the dark humor and unusual twists common with Dahl. Watching her expressions from the onset of the show, I quickly surmised it wouldn’t be a problem whatsoever.

Photo Credit: The Company of James and the Giant Peach at Imagination Stage. L to R: Megan Graves as the Mayor’s wife, Phillip Reid as Earthworm, Eric Messner as Centipede, Lauren Du Pree as Miss Spider, Sean Silvia as James, Leigh Jameson as Ladybug, Matthew Schleigh as Grasshopper, and Joe Brack as the Director.

One thing I like about Imagination Stage is they are consistent and loyal to their brand. Their stage sets are rarely extremely elaborate but the quality of the cast and the story line is so strong that the children do use their imaginations and get lost in the story. It always leaves me wondering if really elaborately built out stages are for the adults – I, for one, am a sucker for them – but perhaps it isn’t always necessary? Especially when kids are involved? And of course, this is certainly true for “James and the Giant Peach” or as my friend Leticia, of Tech Savvy Mama, and I joked during Intermission, Austin Powers meets boy-wonder James, in a Peach.

About the hard to miss Austin Powers theme, Janet Stanford directed the production and she framed the story to be set on a film in the 1960s in England. Here’s where you enter the cast of characters supporting James on his epic journey in a peach: the grasshopper, the centipede, the earth worm, the spider and the ladybug. The grasshopper, in particular, in his rockin’ green pants and vest, really channeled his inner-Austin Powers. Second to the grasshopper was one of my favs, the centipede, with his arms of black leather boots, and total Austin Powers hair. I actually really enjoyed this period twist to the show.

Photo Credit: James (Sean Silvia – center) is bossed around by his mean aunts (L to R – Phillip Reid and Joe Brack) in James and the Giant Peach at Imagination Stage.

James is performed by the only child actor in the production, Ian Berlin, and he is exceptionally talented. For those unfamiliar with the story, James’ life takes a dreadful turn due to the unlikely death of his parents by rhinoceros while shopping in London one day. He ends up living with his two Aunts, Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge, who, stealing from the British Pantomime, are hilariously performed by two men. Noteworthy, my daughter didn’t realize the Aunts were men, so if you go, ask your kids later if they thought the Aunts were men or women, you might be surprised by their answer.

After a few years of living like Cinderella, waiting on his cruel and unloving Aunts, James crosses path one evening with a troll/witch who offers him magic beans in the form of crocodile tongues. The troll warns him that if he drops or loses them, the magic will spread where it falls, and sure enough, like any young child, he trips and spills the contents of the bag. And so begins his journey. Suddenly, a once dead tree sprouts a peach, a peach that grows an unlikely size, along with the insects who were right there where the magic spilled, and before you know it, the group is off on an adventure, bobbing in the Atlantic, headed towards the U.S.

Imagination Stage deftly incorporates puppetry and multi-media into this performance. There are seagull puppets who James cleverly determines can be tied to the peach and fly the peach across the ocean. There is an octopus puppet who makes an appearance during a James Bond like scene when James dives into the ocean to save his friend, the centipede. And there is use of a large screen to visualize the ocean, the dreaded rhino, among other uses.

Again, Dahl excels at imaginative story-telling and Imagination Stage’s production serves the Dahl mission very well. The story is creative, fun, exciting and funny. Fun fact time: If you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself wondering just how many seagulls it would take to fly a giant peach across the Atlantic. Dahl’s story indicates it takes 501 birds but according to the clever work of physics students in Leicester University in England, it would take 2,425,907 seagulls. Another fun fact to share with your kids after they see the show….and after you find out if they realized the Aunts were really hairy men.

Catch James and the Giant Peach before it ends on May 26. I would highly recommend it for anyone in Kindergarten or older. I’d tread carefully for the younger ones. Tickets range from $12-$25 and can be purchased online. There is a sensory-friendly performance on May 12.

Disclosure: Imagination Stage gifted the tickets to me but my opinions here are all my own.