So Adorable Onstage, They Exit With Cast
One puppy went home with the actress playing the teacher, another with the actor playing the father. The stage manager took one. So did a hairdresser, and the parents of a publicist.
During the 24-month Broadway run of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” 21 puppies — golden retrievers and others that look goldenish — have cycled through the show’s cast, appearing in a brief but reliably crowd-pleasing scene toward the end of the show. And as each one ages out of the role — as soon as the dogs grow too big to fit in a gift box, they are replaced — each has been adopted by a performer, a crew member or someone else tied to the theater industry.
“I hadn’t really discussed it with my husband, and we have a 6-yearold and an ancient Chihuahua, so it wasn’t the best time,” said Francesca Faridany, who played the teacher, Siobhan, for a year and became fond of Bubba, who was Puppy Number 8. “But I thought, ‘Oh, my God, I want to take him.’ ” Bubba, a mixed-breed dog who arrived at the show from a shelter and stayed in the cast for about eight weeks because he remained small, now lives with Ms. Faridany.
This puppy pipeline is nearing an end: The producers of “Curious Incident” are closing the show on September 4. But it has created an unusual group of dog- owning theater lovers who can identify their pets by number (reflecting when they appeared in the show), get together for playdates, exchange dog-sitting and have a Facebook group for photos.
A few of the dogs had abbreviated theatrical careers (two exhibited stage fright and were replaced), while others had incidents (one vomited onstage; another nipped an actor). Bubba left after developing cherry eye, but then returned to reprise his role as an understudy.
At least two of the dogs have parlayed success onstage into commercial work, while Puppy Number 12, Babs, seems to have an actor’s self-regard. “One quirky thing she does is stare at herself — in any mirror, water, glass windows,” said Sandy Rapp, the mother of a “Curious” publicist, who adopted that dog. “We attribute this to her having been a star.”
The play, based on the best- sell-
After star turns, 21 puppies scurry off to new homes.
ing 2003 novel by the British writer Mark Haddon, chronicles the quest by Christopher, a teenager with symptoms associated with children on the autism spectrum, to solve a dog’s murder. That dog, who appears onstage, dead, in the opening scene, is depicted by a prop that the live dogs are barred from seeing; the live puppy arrives late in the show.
The puppy is described in the script as being two months old; the actual animals are brought in at eight weeks and stay until they are 12 or 13 weeks old.
The show’s animal trainer, Lydia DesRoche, sought rescue puppies, but finding dogs with the right look, personality and availability proved difficult, so she has often turned to carefully chosen breeders, looking for dogs who seemed neither too shy nor too boisterous, and who wouldn’t startle at applause. The dogs spend much of each show in a dressing room, which they share with a rat who also appears in the show; Ms. DesRoche or a wrangler walks them into the wings for their second-act scene; they are presented to Christopher by his father, and run around the stage, climb over the actor, or both, depending on their mood.
Ms. DesRoche said that there had generally been a line of people in the theater world eager to adopt the dogs. “It’s not difficult to find a home for an adorable blond puppy,” she said.