INTERVIEW: This ‘Hungry Caterpillar’ is ready for the holidays
Photo: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Holiday Show also includes scenes from Eric Carle’s Dream Snow. Photo courtesy of the show / Provided by The Press Room with permission.
Beloved illustrator and storyteller Eric Carle created some of the most iconic images for young readers in the history of children’s literature. The scribe may be gone, but because of his creative work, he’ll never be forgotten. His legacy continues on in books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
One can enjoy Carle’s creations by picking up his books, which remain bestsellers to this day, or one can head to The Duke on 42nd Street at NEW 42 Studios in Midtown Manhattan for The Very Hungry Caterpillar Holiday Show, which features several of Carle’s indelible works, including Dream Snow. The child-friendly performances run through Jan. 5; the experience is recommended for virtually everyone 6 months and up.
“This project for me has been going for almost 11 years,” said Jonathan Rockefeller, creator and director of the theatrical spectacle. “This show has now been on stage for 10 years all throughout the world, and 11 years ago was when I first approached Eric Carle to say, ‘I really think your book would be an amazing stage production.’ I went on a wonderful journey working with him and his team to help create this wonderful show based on his incredible books, which I think the best thing about it generally is introducing and bringing new audiences to the theater. And I think that that is something that’s only possible with the magic of Eric Carle’s work.”
To create The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show (and this slightly revamped holiday edition), Rockefeller drew inspiration not only from Carle’s works, but also from another musical just down the street. That’s right, The Lion King impressed the director so much with its visuals and universality that he wanted to create something similar, just on a smaller scale.
“This is a visual story that can be told even without language, but these stories in The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, they’re illustrated so viscerally and beautifully that to me I thought the only way to tell them is by bringing those illustrations to life,” he said. “And the best device to do that was through puppetry, and when I talk puppetry, some people think about Elmo and Sesame Street and everything. I’m not talking about that kind of style. I’m talking about large-scale puppets that are so didactic and interesting and the way that they move and the colors, it is just something that translates as a really wonderful, visual spectacle that’s not even possible from reading the book. I think that’s important in any sort of book interpretation. You have to add to the piece, and in us adding to the piece, we’re not changing Eric’s story in any way. But what we’re doing is we’re filling in the gaps between the pages.”
Rockefeller cites his working relationship with Carle as a highlight of his professional life. He called the author, who died a couple of years ago, incredibly funny, generous, creative and humble.
“He created this book and many subsequent books afterward just from the simple motion of playing with a hole punch,” Rockefeller said. “How could I make a fun book about a bookworm who crawls through pages and eats holes through pages? … Eric was a brilliant illustrator, and I think that anyone who has seen his books and his illustrations can recognize that. I mean, his style is so graphic and recognizable, but accessible at the same time. They’re that wonderful tissue-paper style. It was really a great pleasure to get to know him, to get to go into the studio often to see behind the scenes and how he does it, and get to know him as a friend as well.”
When audience members take in a performance of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Holiday Show, they will not only be enjoying a story with a hungry, hungry caterpillar. Several of Carle’s characters and stories come to life at The Duke on 42nd Street. Rockefeller said the goal was always to adapt many of the author’s tales.
“I always thought Caterpillar is a great story, but it’s almost the grand finale of the piece,” he said. “I thought it was almost a compendium show that we would be able to change in and out different Eric Carle stories, ones that you may not be as familiar with, but introduce new stories and new characters. … You’re there to see The Hungry Caterpillar, but you get enchanted by the other stories on that journey to there. It’s also about the tension and the flow of the work and introducing people to sit down in the rhythm of the piece to begin with. It sort of starts really small, and then it grows and grows and grows, as does the audience, too. By the end of Hungry Caterpillar, it’s like going to a Taylor Swift concert, and I don’t mean that in an overstating kind of way. If you want to hear an enthusiastic crowd of audiences, go and see The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Holiday Show, featuring Eric Carle’s Dream Snow, is now playing at The Duke on 42nd Street at NEW 42 Studios. The piece was created and directed by Jonathan Rockefeller. Click here for more information and tickets.
