The Midnight Train Crossing

For anyone that doesn't know, Bunnicula is a short novel (novella?) written for children around the target age of 10 (I think. I dunno, that's when I read it :)) It was written by Deborah and James Howe. The story is about the Monroe family - Mother, Father, and two boys, cat - Chester and dog - Harold.

Harold narrates, telling all about their adventures when the youngest boy, Toby accidentally sits on a baby rabbit while the family is seeing the movie Dracula. They name the rabbit Bunnicula because it's a bunny and they found it at Dracula.
Chester, the literary cat, realizes that there is something decidedly odd about Bunnicula... first, the strange cape-like markings on his back, and then his oddly sharp teeth - fangs. Soon after, dried out vegetables start appearing in the fridge. Could their new rabbit actually be a vampire?
Chester is convinced of this, and he drags a doubtful Harold into it. The pets try to convince the humans about Bunnicula's true identity, but without too much luck.

I've always loved this book, and all of its sequels, so I was looking forward to seeing it as a play. I expected it to be rather cute - I did not expect it to be as hilarious as it was.

The set was pretty cool, the kitchen and living room for the Monroe house. A staircase led off stage to the second floor. At the rear of the stage were double glass doors which were meant to be the front doors to the house. I thought they were cool. Off to the left side of the stage was another house (next door?) which was creepy, horror-movie style. It was a pretty detailed set, decorated in sort of 60s or 70s era. (The book doesn't take place in any specific time).

After examining the set (Always the first order of business) I settled down to look at the program, and I found a lot of familiar faces. Chester the cat was played by Gerard Neugent, who I have seen play the Cat In The Hat in one of the versions of Seussical I have seen, but never reviewed. (He was a very good Cat!) And Harold was played by Bo Johnson - who has been in a lot of things, but including, A Christmas Story, which I did Review! When I saw that those two were playing Chester and Harold I knew that this was going to be good.

I was right.

The opening to the play was classic. A light went on in the spooky looking house, and then there was the sound of water running... a toilet flushing... feet going up the stairs, and then a very creepy looking man opened the shutters on the second floor and leaned out. He looked around at the audience and then went back inside and sat down at a creepy looking organ and started to play. Thus, the music for the show was provided. From where we were sitting, I could see inside, but I sorta think that the effect must have been lost for the people sitting on that side of the theatre that couldn't see in.
There are a few times in the play when the characters make reference to the spooky organ or violin music - however, both times it is dismissed as Professor Mickelwhite, the next door neighbor practicing his violin (or organ).
At one very dramatic point, when the music crescendos into a climax, Ann Monroe (the mother) yells out the door "Professor Mickelwhite! Your window is open!"
The violinist stops, mutters "Sorry" and half closes the shutters.

Harold and Chester worked brilliantly together through the whole play. It started off with Harold - dressed in a brown suede (maybe?) jacket with a newsies's style cap with the ears sticking out - sitting on the couch with a bubble pipe. He was the narrator of the show, as well as one of the major characters, so sometimes the action would stop a little while he explained things to the audience.
Chester was dressed all in black, with his ears sticking up out of his hat. He also entered wearing large black sunglasses, which he took off to reveal... black rimmed glasses.

These two stole the show. Even when the action was on other characters, I couldn't help but watch them because they were always up to something. Chester got stuck in a hula hoop, and went through interesting contortions to get out. He was also very funny whenever he went to sleep - he just flopped down.
However, I think that my favorite Chester moment was when he was chasing after a bowl of milk. Mrs Monroe kept moving it around, until finally, much to his disappointment, she put it back in the fridge.

I already mentioned the musician (Ernie Brusubardis). He wasn't just there to provide background music. No, this play turned out to be a musical! I realized this when Chester and Harold started singing a funny song about how important pets were. Chester called the song to a stop for a few minutes as he realized that Harold was listing off some impossible pets, dinosaurs and dragons.
Chester: "Those aren't pets!"
Harold: "Well, maybe not in this neighborhood!"
Alas, there was not a song list in the playbill, so I don't know what all of the songs were called.
It was a little strange though. As we were listening to it, it almost sounded like everything was in stereo. My mom described it well when she said it sounded like the actors were singing along to a tape of themselves singing. Maybe like they were supposed to be lip-synching, but decided to sing instead.
I dunno. It was weird. None of the other plays in this theatre have ever sounded like that.

The Monroe family - Mrs Ann Monroe (Laurie Birmingham), Mr. Robert Monroe (Todd Denning), Toby (Brett Galaszewski) and Pete (Alec Aldred) return home from a night at the movies and greet their pets, telling them all about their adventures.
The family are dressed in brightly colored clothes through the whole show - and later, brightly colored pajamas.

Harold pauses the story here to explain to the audience that the Monroes consider all members of their family to be equally intelligent - animals included.
Toby tells all about how they found Bunnicula at the movies, and they open the box to reveal the rabbit - a puppet.
Bunnicula was done by a series of three puppets, operated by Jason Economus, who was dressed in a tuxedo and made no real attempt to hide. They do that a lot at this theatre. They figure that it's impossible to completely hide the puppeteers, so they work them into the show.

Bunnicula has a tag around his neck - which Harold is able to read by licking it. Apparently it tastes like an obscure dialect from some region that I forgot. He says he can read it because he is part Russian Wolfhound. It says "Please take care of my baby."

Bunnicula gets settled in his cage and Chester and Harold try to get to know him. At least, Harold does. Chester is more interested in reading his book - a book of Horror stories. Chester, as Harold explains, is not an ordinary cat. Chester "was originally a birthday gift for Mr Monroe, along with a first edition by Charles Dickens. So as you can see, Chester has developed a strong taste for books." Harold likes books too - he likes to eat them.
Chester starts to point out the odd things about Bunnicula - the strange cape like markings, and the fangs, but Harold thinks he's just being silly... or jealous. Or both.

That's when the white vegetables start turning up. This makes way for more funny horror-movie gag spoofs. The first is a white, dried out tomato. At least, they think it is a tomato. Ann Monroe says there's only one way to find out, and she grabs a knife to cut it with. Except, it's a large butcher knife, and she lowers it on the tomato in slow motion as the strobe lights flash.

A bit later, Chester and Harold discover a white zucchini... and every time they said "White Zucchini" dramatic violin music would play. Harold asked if white zucchinis play violin music, and Chester finally scolds the vegetable, "Stop that!" meaning the music.

At some point, we finally do see Bunnicula as the vampire, in a pretty creepy looking puppet. The vampire bunny was larger than the other puppet... I'd say about half the size of the puppeteer. He prowled around the stage in the dark house, lit only by flashes of lightning. (There were a lot of storms in this play). He stood in front of the refrigerator and held out a paw, opening it in a creepy manner. But apparently the light bulb burned, so he would always burn it out first before "attacking" the vegetables and turning them into "the vegetable undead" (As Chester put it). I thought that bit was pretty cool.

More and more white vegetables convince Harold that something strange is going on, and in the finale to the first act, they sing another song about how they need to beware of Bunnicula. There was another cute moment here when they "pretended to be asleep" by diving down onto the floor in very uncomfortable looking poses.

In the second act, there are more white vegetables, and Chester tries to convince the family that they are in danger, but this only leads to them thinking that Chester has lost it, so, after an amusing scene where he steals a steak from the kitchen and tries to stab Bunnicula with it, Chester is banished to the yard. Harold, on the other hand, gets to eat the steak, so he's happy.
While Chester is trapped out in the yard, he and Harold sing my favorite song "Poor Cat" where Chester lamented the unfairness of it all. Harold felt sorry for Chester, but it was hard to be sad when he currently had a whole steak to himself.
Harold and Chester fight, and sing a somewhat sad song about how they don't need to be friends. Of course, their fight doesn't last for very long because they miss each other.

The plague of the white vegetables stop, but Bunnicula starts to look ill, making Harold worry. (He and the rabbit have since become friends). So Harold stays up one night to discover that Chester, with the aid of a flashlight has been preventing Bunnicula from leaving his cage - the rabbit-vampire hasn't been eating.
Harold, not wanting Bunnicula to starve, decides to do something about it. When Mrs Monroe leaves out a bowl of salad, he attempts to take Bunnicula into the kitchen so the rabbit can have some dinner.
Chester does not approve of this, and a fabulously funny scene, entitled "The great salad massacre" results. The three pets and a bowl of salad fly all over the stage, with strobe lights. The strobe lights would flash at dramatic moments, at which point everyone would move in slow motion.

The family hears the commotion, and comes downstairs to discover that Bunnicula is sick, Chester is insane, and Harold cowering under the table.
Mrs Monroe decides the best thing to do is call the vet.
The vet was also played by the puppeteer. I know he had a name... really... because the family chanted it. I just... don't remember what it was.
The vet was interesting.... I'm not quite sure *what* accent he was supposed to have.
And it was a very small part. He sort of just whisked in, announced Bunnicula should be on an all-liquid diet, Chester should see a cat therapist, and Harold wasn't due for his shots.

Bunnicula stopped turning vegetables white after that. As Chester put it, "He's a modern vampire - he uses a juicer."
The show ends with a reprise of the pet song from the beginning.

And then came the talk-back, which was noteworthy because Chester's actor continued to be silly.
One of the questions from the kids in the audience was how they made the fridge swing open and smoke and do all of the other things it did. While someone else explained how the people in the control booth controlled it, Chester was standing there doing Bunnicula's vampire gesture, trying to open the door.
But this time, either the tech guys weren't on the ball, or it was too complicated to do, but they didn't respond. So he went over and opened the doors, then posed like it had opened magically.
Someone else asked about the white vegetables, so he was holding some up to demonstrate - and he was doing so rather dramatically.

Bunnicula was very cute and far funnier than I expected it to be, thanks to excellent performances by Gerard Neugent and Bo Johnson as Chester and Harold.