Peppa Pig Live! full of surprises for preschoolers
Canada’s most popular porcine family is coming to Calgary for one night only.
Peppa Pig Live! Peppa’s Surprise! is on a whistle stop tour of 33 cities in North America including Calgary, where it will play at the Jack Singer Concert Hall on April 20 at 6 p.m.
The target audience for Peppa Pig Live! is preschoolers and their families and past tours of these live musical adventures have sold upwards of 500,000 tickets.
Jonathan Shank, the tour producer for Peppa Pig Live!, says the key to the success of these shows is “engagement and interactivity.”
“We have to give families a fun experience because for most of the children this will be their introduction to live theatre,” he says. “The popularity of Peppa the Pig in Canada is phenomenal. The television series is an enormous hit with young children and the live show gives them an opportunity to connect with the characters they love.”
Shank says one of the reasons Peppa Pig is so popular with youngsters is that “the characters are a relatable family and therefore accessible to children.”
In this new adventure for Peppa, her family and friends, Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig tell Peppa and her younger brother George they have a surprise for them. Try as they may, Peppa and George cannot guess what it is.
Shank explains Mummy Pig, Daddy Pig, Mr. Potato and Red Monkey are costume characters which means actors are inside of the mascot-like costumes. The other characters are life-size puppets.
“Actors in black costumes stand behind the puppets to make them walk, talk, dance, sing and jump up and down. It’s important that the show is filled with energy, movement, music and songs.”
California-based actor Daniel Jared Hersh joined this newest leg of the Peppa Pig Live! tour to replace the original actor who was playing Daddy Pig.
Hersh is no stranger to playing these larger than life costume characters. He toured as Captain Barnacle in The Octonauts tour.
“For Octonauts, think Star Trek for kids set under water. My Captain Barnacle was a polar bear so I’ve gone from a bear to a pig.
“For Barnacle my face and hands were visible but for Daddy Pig I am completely enclosed in the costume. I operate his hands and mouth from inside the costume using levers. It took some getting used to.
“I have to keep him moving as much as possible so he appears animated to the children.
“I also play Danny Dog, which like George, Susan Sheep and Pedro Pony, are puppets. We animate these characters and move their mouths to make them speak and sing.”
Hersh is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Hollywood with a degree in musical theatre. Peppa the Pig Live! helps Hersh keep his pipes active singing along to the 11 songs.
Though the show stops for one night only in most cities, Hersh says it’s not as exhausting as it might sound.
“We have these incredible tour buses, one for the cast and one for the crew. We have our own beds and a living area which means after we pack up the show in one city, we get on the bus, go to sleep and when we wake up we’re in a new city getting ready for our next show.”
This leg of the Peppa Pig Live! tour ends in Florida on May 25 but a new leg of the tour is scheduled for the fall.
Tickets for the Calgary show are on sale by phone at 403-294-9494 or through ticketmaster.ca