I Took My Daughter to "Dog Man: The Musical"

Over the weekend my daughter and I went to the theater. I was driving home one day from coffee with my buddy and I happened to drive by a local theater, Stifel. I was looking at their marquee while at a stop light and an ad for "Dog Man: The Musical" popped up.

My daughter loves these books. My son used to read them all the time, and when he was done with them he gave them to his sister. She devoured these books. She has read every single one multiple times. She references them to me time and time again. She will tell me all kinds of random jokes that she got from the books. So when I got home that day I figured I would see if the whole family wanted to go. At first we were all in, but then my daughter said she wanted it to be just the two of us. Selfishly, that made me a little happy. She just wanted it to be us, and I'm going to savor that feeling for as long as it lasts. I went to purchase the tickets, and to my delight they weren't that expensive, considering it is a traveling show and Saint Louis was one of the few stops this go round. I got us some nice seats, and after a very good dinner of wood fired pizza, we made our way to the show. I didn't really know how my daughter would react. She is an introvert like me, and loud noises make her a little squirmy from time to time. I was curious what the crowd would be like and how full the theater would be. When we got there it was about 75 percent full. For a kids show on a Friday night that seemed pretty solid to me. I was happy when we found our seats because we had a lot of room to stretch out if needed. We had about five to seven open seats next to us. The crowd was much like my daughter and I, parents bringing their kid or kids. Some brought friends as well. It was what I was expecting.

The show started, and right from the jump, my daughter was invested. Every time I had a question or they introduced a new character, she would answer me or tell me who was on stage. This was echoed throughout the theater, which was a delight. The actors did a really good job. You have to know, this is a show for kids, so the actors are going to act like the kids like the characters they are playing. It was very well done. I especially enjoyed Lil Petey and Dog Man's performance.  The person playing Dog Man had to do all of his work with barks, ruffs and movement. And they nailed it. Lil Petey had a beautiful voice and, according to my daughter, sounded just like the character from the book and movies. They split the show into two parts, which was nice. They did 30 minutes, took a 15 minute break and finished with 30 more minutes. For a crowd made up mostly of kids aged 5 to 12, an hour and 15 minutes was the perfect amount of time. I was so happy that they did it that way. During the show, besides her telling me things I asked, I have never seen my kid so invested in what was going on on stage. She was smiling the whole time. The show got some loud laughs from her. There was one scene where they made a disco ball-like effect with the lights and my daughter audibly gasped and said, "wow! that is so cool!". She was so entranced by what was happening. She was also paying very, very close attention. She didn't have to take a bathroom break, nor did she ask me to get up and walk around with her. When the show was over I asked if she wanted to get involved with theater and she gave me an emphatic yes. She is all in now. All in all I was very impressed with what we saw. I love that my daughter was so in love with what she saw. I really like live music and theater, and now it seems like this is something we can share more of with one another. And my hat is off to Stifel Theater and the touring company of "Dog Man: The Musical". They clearly know what they are doing, they have a system, they know their audience and they are out there doing a wonderful show.

If you have a kid, or you yourself were once a fan of this material, go see this show. It is a very good time and it is so well put together. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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