Oh, the pleasures of watching a kid’s show accompanied by a school group.
In the new Chicago Children’s Theatre musical, “Milo Imagines the World,” the titular young New Yorker has the magical ability to escape the more prosaic aspects of life by picking up his pen and transforming his environment. Since critics are supposed to reach for comparatives, I’ll go with “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” one of my all-time favorite kids’ TV shows, not least for its music.
Anyway, at one juncture in this new tuner, Milo (played by the uber-authentic Ian Thigpen) does his drawing thing for his stressed-out older sister, Adrienne (Diana Marilyn Alvarez at the performance I saw), only for her to tear it into pieces.
“This was one of my best drawings,” Milo said. “You ripped it up.”
And then, louder than any dialogue from the stage, a young dude in my row added his two cents: “Literally.”
I had the pleasure of seeing “Milo” last week alongside some super-engaged fourth and fifth graders from the Chicago International Charter School on the South Side. They were with Milo all the way.
You might be thinking school groups are no surprise at a kid’s show. But I’m telling you, they’ve been in very short supply since the pandemic for a whole variety of reasons (the need for advance planning, budgets, buses and so on), and while I used to regularly enjoy myself among rows of curious kiddos, it’s been a long time. And I was reminded at Chicago Children’s Theatre how much I had missed the experience.
If you like little musicals and have got a kid at home (I’d say ages 5-11 are ideal), “Milo,” which has a book penned by Terry Guest (a big talent in Chicago theater) as well as music by Christian Magby and lyrics by Christian Albright, will brighten your day.
Chicago Children’s Theatre, which is still getting back on its post-pandemic feet, commissioned the work alongside the Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis (where the show played in a two-act format) and the Rose Theater in Omaha. It’s based on the illustrated book of the same name by Matt de la Peña. What’s striking about the piece, creatively directed by Mikael Burke, is the specificity of the urban landscape where Milo lives (his mom was played by Kendal Wilson at the performance I saw and the other characters, real and imaginary, are played by De’Jah Perkins, Juwon Tyrel Perry and Jake Ziman), as well as the wittiness of Albright’s “Avenue Q”-esque lyrics. I was especially tickled by the “vegan lady with the vegan baby.” If you get the reference, imagine a kids’ POV version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Tell Me on a Sunday.”
The Chicago Children’s Theatre’s West Loop home neighborhood has a lot more kids now than when I lived there decades ago (yikes!) and I was struck by how much this sweet little show captures what it’s like to be a little person in a big city.
It’s a real charmer and you can clap along. My crew sure did.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “Milo Imagines the World” (3 stars)
When: Through Nov. 10 (weekend daytime performances)
Where: Chicago Children’s Theatre, 100 S. Racine Ave.
Running time: 65 minutes
Tickets: $40.25 at 312-374-8835 and chicagochildrenstheatre.org