Happy Hippos in a Magical Musical

George and Martha are best friends who do everything together. They have their differences, of course, but they always patch things up eventually. The fact that they are hippos, not humans, doesn’t detract from the lessons learned, and the lessons don’t detract from the delight in Imagination Stage’s world premiere of the musical George & Martha: Tons of Fun. 

“We are very interested in doing theatre for the very young,” says Associate Artistic Director Kathryn Chase Bryer, who is director of this show. But in addition to the series called My First Imagination Stage, for ages 1-5, in their smaller Reeve Studio Theatre, “We’re also committed to trying to find shows for 3-5 years old” in the bigger Lerner Theatre.

Imagination Stage traditionally commissions two scripts a year. George & Martha, based on the popular children’s books by James Marshall, was brought to their attention by playwright Joan Cushing, with whom they’d worked before, and fit with the goal of looking for shows for 3-5 and up.  Cushing is playwright, composer and lyricist of the fabulous final product, full of laugh-worthy lyrics, toe-tapping music, clever choreography and silly slapstick. 

Those expecting gigantic gray hippo costumes will be disappointed, but the audiences don’t seem to be. The animal nature of the characters is conveyed much more subtly, yet effectively, through headgear--with the recognizable little semicircle ears for George and Martha, a shiny long-billed “gimme” cap and dapper lime-green suit for Croc, a hair bow for pink-attired Pig with a little snout at the front and beret and long floppy ears for Dog.  The musical combines a number of the George & Martha stories to tell the story of a friendship, and how it breaks down, and how they come back together. “Whether you’re three years old or eight years old or 20 years old we all have friends, and then little things happen, and you get angry, and then you make up, that’s how life is,” says Bryer.

The cast are all professional adult actors. George is played by Michael John Casey, who was in Imagination Stage’s The Neverending Story and How I Became a Pirate. Martha is played by Sandra L. Murphy, who was in Heidi and The Borrowers. Featured friends, acting as sort of a Greek chorus commenting on the action, are Pig (Kate Guesman), Dog (Dereks Thomas) and Croc (Nickolas Vaughan). 

Are parents’ eyes glazing over while their small children enjoy George & Martha?  Not a bit! Grownup guffaws punctuate the show as often as children chortling. “We pride ourselves on doing theater for children that’s very sophisticated,” says Bryer.  “Keep in mind that we do theater that is really for families, and that parents will enjoy it as much as the kids do.”

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Imagination Stage, 4908 Auburn Avenue, Bethesda. Box Office: 301-280-1660, www.imaginationstage.org

George & Martha: Tons of Fun, April 6-May 28. Tickets $10-22. ($5 lap seat for children under the age of 2)

Editor's Note: The writer is employed by Washington Parent, a sponsor of George & Martha: Tons of Fun. The views expressed in this article are those of the author.