Pinkalicious

Chances are if you have a little girl who is into pink, you have heard of Pinkalicious. You may have even read it once or twice, or a thousand times. I know we have! It is, in fact, one of "The Pink Books," a collection of stories that must all be read together, it seems, and are all either pink or princess, and some are both! So when we heard that Stages Theatre Company was putting the book on stage, I knew we would be going.

Kiddo is a good sport and he likes going to plays. Even though Pinkalicious isn't his favorite story (there are no dragons or LEGOS), he was game to go. Even Daddy took the morning to go with us. He sometimes feels left out because we go to so many fun things! That meant Kutey had the best seat in the house, Daddy's lap. Gotta love that.



The highlights of the play? For Kutey, "EVERYTHING!" Yep, it was a play made for her. For Kiddo, the bicycle built for 4 complete with a security system. It was rather entertaining! I especially enjoyed watching dad retrieve the bicycle. The actors who portrayed Mom and Dad were also very entertaining. I enjoyed their performances. And the dancing cupcakes. Who doesn't like dancing cupcakes!



As with any adaptation of a picture book, there had to be a bit of embellishing. They stuck to the basic story, but added a few things in. For one thing, Dad was a much bigger character in the play than he was in the book. So was the friend. And there were songs. Most of the additions to the storyline were simply embellishments of what exists in the book and songs that played off parts of the story line. The staging was thoughtful and interesting, bright and colorful with enough pink to fit the general theme of the play.

It was an interesting performance. The performers were fine, and did well with the material given to them. I guess I just didn't like some of the material given to them. Examples? Just a couple. At one point, the friend, Alison, gets upset because Pinkalicious forgets to bring her one of the cupcakes. She storms off, saying "I'm not playing with you, you're not my friend," or something to that effect. Now, I *KNOW* this happens in real life, particularly among girls of elementary age, but does it really need to be reinforced as OK in a theater production directed specifically at that age group? Eventually, they resolve their differences, but I was left feeling like they could have either avoided that all together, or done a better job of using it to model better problem solving. It just wasn't necessary to the storyline.

They also devoted an entire song to the line, "You get what you get and you don't get upset." OK, yes. BUT...they ended up taking it a little to far. And the book at least says "but I did get upset." The song seemed to sort of make it seem as though feeling upset was not OK. I work hard to let my kids know that emotions are OK. It is OK to be upset. That doesn't mean they will get what they want. You still get what you get. The positive line from the song? "Sometimes life doesn't turn out just exactly as planned." I can get behind that. But it is OK to be sad when that happens. It is OK to be upset. It is OK, even, to be angry. Kids need to learn to recognize those emotions, recognize what is going on, and handle them appropriately. Life isn't always going to come out as you hoped, that is true, but bottling your emotions about that isn't going to help, either.

That is just writing, however, and should not take away from the performances of the actors. They did a fine job, I just wasn't entirely pleased with the adaptation. Probably just me! The kids didn't seem to care! They enjoyed the performance.

(clunk, clunk, scrape)

OK, Off my soap box.

We will continue to go to Stages Theatre, because they do put on wonderful shows. We loved The Snowy Day last year! There are only a couple I am interested in next season, but it seems one a year is what we can get to!