Review: The 101 Dalmatians Musical/Broadway In Chicago
Musicals, Theater, Theater Reviews No Comments »
The beginning and end of this non-Disney adaptation of the 1956 Dodie Smith children’s novel features trained Dalmatians and, every now and then, a couple of them make cameos, usually running across the stage. When they do, the audience “oohhs” and “ahhs,” but when the actual dogs are backstage, there is little onstage to hold our interest, human, canine or otherwise. And that is a big hole, some two-hours-plus of a two-and-a-half-hour show.
When a show is being produced by a dog-food company, it’s a good bet that you are not in for your standard Broadway fare. A human playing a dog comes out before the Act II curtain with a bag of said food, pretends to eat it and comments on how wonderful it is, creating in effect a live stage commercial within the fabric of a show. But as peculiar as that is, the brainstorming session that cooked up the central conceit of this show must have been downright bizarre: let’s take real, trained Dalmatians and mix them in with unruly kids that are supposed to be Dalmatians by just dressing those kids in white shirts and shorts or skirts, with spots, of course. Read the rest of this entry »








