Chicago Children’s Theatre kicks off its 20th season with Suzanne Maynard Miller’s charming stage adaptation of Leo Lionni’s classic 1967 picture book, Frederick, about a field mouse who’s dreamily taking in the scenery while his compatriots try to stockpile enough food to make it through the winter.
There’s a lot of scurrying and even more worrying, but Frederick won’t be distracted from his mission of taking in every sweet sight, from the butterflies to the flowers to the falling leaves. He won’t even help Baby, the smallest mouse, retrieve a tasty ear of corn from a nearby barn.
Frederick, played with impish je ne sais quoi by Brandon Acosta, delights the kids who know all too well the immense joys of simply experiencing the beauty of the natural world. The adults in the room may feel aligned with the other mice, who see Frederick as something of a selfish layabout, but even their hearts will be touched when he saves the day in the dead of winter by sharing warming tales of all that he remembers from his explorations.
The company of mice–Ellie Duffey, Tina Muñoz Pandya, Shawn Pfautsch and Leslie Ann Sheppard–tell this whimsical tale well, often with a song ticking their whiskered faces (courtesy of Sarah Durkee and Paul Jacobs), leaving their young audience with another fun story to remember as they race to the next developmental stage.
Frederick runs through November 16 at Chicago Children’s Theatre.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Joe Mazza
