On Labor Day, September 2, the Arts Project of Cherry Grove and Ken Woodhouse’s Kid Kamp presented “The Three Piggy Opera,” presumably the first show featuring children, with adults, at the Community House. As Ken put it, ‘We’re going to begin the slow and sometimes painful process of passing the torch on to the next generation,” making for a historic first indeed. The scene was a courtroom and the matter before us was the Three Little Pigs vs. the Big Bad Wolf.
Ken began the entertainment by singing “Kids,” from “Bye Bye Birdie.” To the line “What’s the matter with kids today?,” the child stars vehemently responded, “Nothing!” “Welcome to our opera show,” began the next number, to the tune of Haydn’s Surprise Symphony, disclosing that the “pigs took the wolf to court.” The plaintiffs reveled in the situation, turning “Three Little Maids (from school are we),” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado,” into “Three Little Pigs in court today.” The two sides kicked off the courtroom proceedings to themes from Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. “I’m a strict vegetarian!” the scary Wolf, Logan Hardcore, sporting a Beyoncé t-shirt and beastly ears and nose, protested.
“I feel so bad,/This is the worst day I ever had,” the Wolf wept in a duet with his defender, borrowed from Delibes’ “Lakmé.” “The wolf is my friend,” the defender maintained, to strains of Beethoven’s “Für Elise”—the pigs’ champion (Kate Castrianni) looked dubious. “What time is it?” everyone wondered, to the melody of Pachelbel’s Canon, as the case dragged on. The pigs stated their case, about their houses of straw, sticks, and bricks, in their trio. The Wolf insisted, to a balletic theme, that it was just his sneeze that demolished the houses and, in demonstrating, blew Maestro Ken’s wig off his head.
The learned Judge delivered a verdict and the lawyers settled the case to the tune of the Infernal Galop from Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld”: the pigs would get assistance rebuilding and everyone would have chocolate cake! The cast took bows to a deserved standing ovation.