Elephant and Piggie: We Are in a Play!

Way back in the Fall, I saw some signs up for an Elephant and Piggie play at the Smith Center. I'm not sure who puts the plays on, but there are four children's plays every year. I think they travel around the country and Las Vegas is one of their stops. They come and play during the day for elementary schools and then one night have a show where anyone can buy tickets and come. This year, besides Elephant and Piggie, they did "Room On a Broom", "The Cat in the Hat", and "Clifford".

Since we love Mo Willems so much (and really, who doesn't?), I really wanted to go to Elephant and Piggie. The tickets are very affordable, so I decided to get the Thalmans tickets for their Christmas gift so we could all go together. Finally, the night arrived (back in February). Kim and I decided to meet for dinner beforehand and then go to the show. The girls dressed up and looking fancy and darling.

The box office talked me into buying box tickets. It was so much fun and totally worth it! Since the tickets start out so cheap, it made doing the box affordable and extra special. It was especially nice because we were the only ones in ours, there was nothing blocking the view, and we could just kind of spread out and have personal space for when June needed a little extra entertaining.

In the lobby: these Thalman girls know how to pose!

I tried to get a good picture in the box, but with the lighting and Willa's glasses, this was the best I got. It was so fun! We saw some friends below us and I texted the mom. She started turning all around to see us and waved her arms wide when eye contact was finally made.

The production was really, really cute. It was very minimalist, which I wasn't expecting, but I'm sure that helps keep the costs down. The Gerald was a man in gray clothes with a gray tie for his trunk, and Piggie was a woman in pink clothes. I was a teensy bit disappointed at first, but when the play got going, their acting made up for it. They were Elephant and Piggie, no doubt about it. I was curious what the play would be, it was kind of a mash-up of a lot of the books. Willa would get so excited at each new scene as she would recognize what book it was from and some of the lines. The opening scene was from "We Are Invited to a Party" and had all the costume and shenanigans from the book, and when they finally get to the party everyone wants to dance, so it segues into "Elephants Cannot Dance." It was all like that and they did some of our favorite books. 

The kids in the entire hall were entranced. When Gerald turns around with his big ice cream cone and asks, "Should I share my ice cream?" All the kids yelled, "YES!!" It was adorable. The final scene was from "We Are in a Book" (which is one of my favorite ones), but it had been changed to be in a play. I didn't know how they were going to do it, but they managed to include the parts where they made the audience say things. It was the highlight of the night and the kids were eating it up. They had to say banana (of course), but they also had them doing different actions and they ended up dividing the room up and having different groups do different actions and saying banana in a round. I can't explain it, except that kids were entranced and having the time of their lives. 

It was such a fun night and did Elephant and Piggie justice. I don't know how you could come out of there not liking them. When we went to the library the next week there was only one their books checked in. I imagine all the elementary kids who saw it rushed home and were dying to read some of them again. Or, as Willa put it, "I know why they aren't at the library, because they are at our house." She loves to check at the library to see what ones they have and we have large amount of the at home that we keep renewing. My friend goes to all the plays and said that some are better than others, I'm so glad this one did not disappoint and that we got to enjoy it with friends.