Animal Crackers
The Stage Theatre
April 4–May 11, 2014
Performance Times:
Tuesday–Thursday: 6:30pm
Friday & Saturday: 7:30pm
Saturday-Sunday: 1:30pm
*Family Day* is Sun. 4/27. Use promo code FAMILYDAY when ordering to get tickets to the 1:30PM show for $31.50, including service charge. (Subject to availability) After the show, take your tickets to Hard Rock Cafe and get a free kids meal off of the kids menu, with purchase of an adult entrée.
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ANIMAL CRACKERS is a musical comedy starring the Marx Brothers...well, starring actors who are playing the Marx Brothers. The plot is simple - a group of people gather at a fancy home in Long Island to see a famous and valuable painting that the mistress of the house has gotten from an art-collector friend of hers. But really the show is a reason for the Marx Brothers to show off their slapstick style of comedy.
I brought my handsome 8-year-old with me to the show. The parts of this review that appear in italics are written by him. :-)
The comedy in ANIMAL CRACKERS is pretty much what you would expect from The Marx Brothers. What surprised me about it, though, is that it's a musical with some great song and dance routines. The tap dancing was cool. When I asked my son how he would describe ANIMAL CRACKERS to his friends, he said: It's mostly about mystery, art, and romance. It's like a musical combined with Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, and Wile E. Coyote. I was a little concerned at the start of the play, because it was a good 15-20 minutes before the Marx Brothers (and, therefore, the comedy) appeared on stage; but that didn't phase my kiddo, who gave ANIMAL CRACKERS his highest recommendation. He was literally laughing out loud for much of the show. During the "romantic" scenes, he hid behind his program, which the man sitting beside him thought was hilarious.
Each of the Marx Brothers has his own style of comedy, which means you should laugh at least a few times during the show. My son loved the physical/visual comedy. I liked the doctor the best. It was so funny when the silverware kept dropping out of his clothes, and when his pants fell down (leaving him standing in his shiny yellow boxers). I also liked the part when they were trying to find the flashlight...with the flashlight. My son and I got a kick out of some of the improvisational moments (though I kind of had to explain them to him). There was a really funny scene where one of the characters messed up his lines, and Groucho did a 5-to-10-minute improv bit about it. Classic!
ANIMAL CRACKERS has a run time of 2 hrs 20 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission. The Denver Center recommends it for ages 6 and up, but I think it’s more appropriate for 8 and up. There is some “double meaning” in it, but nothing that my son, who is very precocious, understood. I was not at all uncomfortable having him there with me.
I received tickets for the purposes of writing this review. Even so, the opinions here are 100% my (our) own.
