The Midnight Train Crossing

"Honk" was based off the story of The Ugly Duckling - y'know, the story about how a duckling is hatched and it's gray and scrawny and not yellow and fuzzy like the rest of his family, and thus, is not accepted. And then he grows up and discovers that he's not a duck at all, but a swan.

This version took that story and added songs. That, combined with a really talented cast led to a very cute show which I enjoyed very much.

I only had two minor complaints about the show, so I'll get those out of the way first. They had sound trouble, sometimes the actors singing couldn't be heard over the orchestra. (The orchestra, by the way was made up of students from the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra (MYSO) and was located behind the set).
The other complaint was some of the costumes. All of the characters were supposed to be animals, except that for Ida and Drake (the Ugly Duckling's parents) they looked, well... like people. Ida had a dress and an apron, and Drake wore overalls and boots. There wasn't anything particularly duck-like about them.

The ducklings looked more like, well, ducklings because they all wore yellow and had baseball caps like bills.
"Ugly" (As he was called) wore black shorts, a gray suit-coat, a cute little black hat and glasses. And he was totally adorable too.
As the play progressed and Ugly started to change, he took off the suit-coat, leaving a gray vest and a white shirt under, and then the vest came off, and then he darted off-stage for a complete costume change and came out in a white sparkly suit once he was a swan.
The other swans in the play wore pretty white sparkly clothing too, especially Penny, Ugly's eventual mate.

For me, the main performers that stood out were Niffer Clarke who played Ida, Ugly's mother. She had a lovely voice. Ron Lee who made a brilliantly slinky villain as the Cat and Scott Sowinski who did a brilliant job playing the geeky Ugly Duckling, but then turned out to have a power-house voice. (Steam engine worthy even).

Now, about the show.

The opening song "A Poultry Tale" was cute, particularly when the ducks and the turkey were talking about the Cat, and they chased him off the stage. It was kinda funny.
Ida sang a song called "The Joy Of Motherhood" while her eggs hatched, during which point the giant eggs on stage sprouted legs and started doing a chorus line sort of thing.

Ugly is the last to be born, and Ida tries to encourage him because she knows that he's different. For one thing, he can't quack like the other ducks. He comes out of his shell with a "HONK!"
She knows that he will have trouble, so she encourages him to "Hold Your Head Up High" while she teaches him to swim.

Despite Ida's encouragement, the rest of the birds in the duckyard aren't nearly as accepting. They all mock him and tease him ("Look at him") Even Drake, his father, won't accept him. The Cat, seeing how Ugly is treated by the others decide that Ugly would be a good choice to have for dinner - no one will miss him.

The ducks all head off to eat, but they leave Ugly behind. His siblings basically tell him not to come, so he's left on stage along. This being the perfect time for him to break into song, which he does. He sings about being "Different" and he tries to quack, but it always comes out a honk: "Qua—onk!" During this song I definitely saw (heard?) the steam engine potential in him.

Cat comes out and tells Ugly that he should come over to his home for lunch. But Cat neglects to tell Ugly that he will be the lunch for the cat. ("Play With Your Food") Ugly escapes and runs off, but now he is completely lost.

The others search for him, but with no luck, so Ida decides that she is going to go out and search for him, leaving Drake at home with the ducklings. ("Every Tear A Mother Cries"). She takes the essentials with her, like her cell phone. And she carries all of her things in her Altoids suitcase.

Spring turns to summer and Ugly sheds his suit coat, revealing his white sleeves. He meets up upon a family of geese. The female goose, "Dot" had a costume that seemed to resemble a flight attendant. She, her husband and the other three members of their "Squad" decide to help Ugly find his family. And then they gathered together and formed an airplane, with Dot in the center. She pulls a seatbelt out of her purse and goes into a speal, thanking everyone for choosing to fly "Goose-Air". ("Wild Goose Chase")
The other three members of the squad, by the way all run in, run around and crash into each other.

In his continued quest to eat Ugly, Cat turns up and tricks the geese into taking off, where they are shot at by hunters. Fortunately, they manage to escape, and fortunately for Ugly, the geese take Cat with them, so Ugly escapes again, but he is still lost.

Ida continues to search for him, and the two of them think of each other, taking strength from their memories of each other ("Hold Your Head Up High (reprise)").

Act two takes place about a month later, as Autumn falls. Ida is still out looking for Ugly (Although presumably checking in with Drake via cell phone). The lights come up to reveal Drake in Ida's apron with her feather duster, broom, and a basket of laundry and a very sour expression on his face. He sings about how he can't figure out how Ida can manage it all ("The Joys Of Motherhood (reprise)")

Ugly is still wandering around, looking for his way home when he hears some screaming. He finds a young female swan tangled up in fishing line. He thinks that she is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen, but he is a little embarrassed about how ugly he is. He says something to that effect and the swan, Penny, dismisses it, saying that she's sure he'll look fine once he molts. She went through an ugly stage herself, she says.
Ugly frees her and she asks him to come with her, to fly south before the winter comes, but he says no. He has to find his mother.
Penny glides off the stage in her long sparkly dress, and then just as she's about to exit, she strikes a graceful pose and lets out a loud: "HONK!"

Ugly is left alone on stage for another song: "Now I've Seen You". It's something to the effect of "I thought I knew what beauty was/but now I've seen you." So he's in love. But he's also bummed because not only has Penny migrated away, but she's so pretty and he's so...well... ugly.

While he's sitting there, a new character comes onto the scene - a bullfrog. Ugly doesn't want to talk to the Frog, but through a series of bad jokes, Frog cheers him up. Frog also is "ugly" but he doesn't let that bother him. He tells Ugly that "somewhere in a muddle little puddle/somebody needs a cuddle" and that someday, someone will love him "Warts and All".
Ugly is cheered up, and he continues on his quest to find his way home.

Winter comes, and Ugly shed the gray vest, now wearing a white shirt. He, Ida and Cat all get caught up in a snow storm ("The Blizzard") towards the end of winter, and it's then that Ida finds him, frozen and buried under the snow.
She's mourning for her son, and Mr. and Mrs. Swan (Penny's parents) turn up. They tell Ida to still have hope, and she tries to warm up Ugly. ("Every Tear A Mother Cries (Reprise)") and Ugly wakes up, popping up out of the snow.
But he's not ugly any more.
Wearing a sparkly white suit with feathers, he's a full feathered swan now.
Ida is happy to see him, and he's happy to see her, but he also sees Penny, and he's happy to see her too.

Ida convinces Ugly to go off with the swans, and he does leave with them, but he and Penny decide to stay with Ida and come back to the Duck yard, where they are reunited with the rest of Ugly's family ("Look At Him (reprise)").

I enjoyed the show a lot more then I thought I would actually. It was very cute, and there were a lot of funny lines, which I'm sure that a lot of the kids in the audience missed. And Ugly was very nice to listen to :) He was a cute duckling/cygent and a very nice swan too