The greatest compliment I can pay to the six actors in “Cat Kid Comic Club: The Musical,” now running at Mirvish’s CAA Theatre, is that they each possess the energy of a toddler who’s just gorged themselves on a bucketful of candy.
And as I watched them frolic around the stage with wild abandon at Saturday’s opening performance, I, too, felt that I was riding high on the apex of a sugar rush. Such are the effects of this colourful, boisterous and rambunctious romp. The best part? You’re surfing on this wave of energy for the entirety of the show, and not once does it waver.
Based on Dav Pilkey’s irreverent children’s book series of the same name, this spinoff of last season’s “Dog Man: The Musical” (itself a spinoff of “Captain Underpants”) knows that sometimes you need to aim low to go high. It’s unafraid to directly pander to kids (and those at heart), stuffing itself with so much zany comedy and toilet humour that you can’t help but submit to it all. (Of course, such stupid creativity all comes from the inkwell of someone whose most famous creation is an eggheaded superhero in white underwear.)
Adapted by Kevin Del Aguila, with music by Brad Alexander, the musical follows the cyborg fish Flippy (David VanDyke), the reformed villain of “Dog Man” who’s now a new father to a school of telekinetic, evil tadpoles, with the hope of changing them for the better, just as he did with himself.
He enlists the help of Cat Kid (swing Leslie Baez at my performance) to start a comic club for his children to keep them on the right side of the pond. If they each can finish a story in four days, the tadpoles will be rewarded with a party.
But parenting, especially as a single dad of nearly two dozen indefatigable kids, isn’t as simple as Flippy initially thought. (I’m sure many parents in the audience could relate.)
Squabbling siblings Melvin (Bryan G. Smith) and Naomi (Diamond Destiny) can’t avoid getting on each other’s nerves. Flippy also grows concerned by the contents of some of his tadpoles’ comics, featuring clouds of death, a flailing superhero named “Supa Fail” and a bodybuilder who sprouts spider legs out of his butt. Soon, he insists that they only write stories that are “decent,” “wholesome” and with “good moral values.”
Flippy, however, can’t suppress his children’s creativity. This all strikes at the heart of this ebullient musical — one that celebrates our imaginations, no matter how wild.
At the end of the four-day, comic club intensive, there are lessons to be learned by Flippy and the tadpoles. For the audience, too, there are morals to this tale: of the importance of seeing things from the perspective of others, and of the joy of discovery.
But these lessons never come across as didactic. In fact, this musical as a whole, directed with verve by Marlo Hunter, with a cast rounded out by Jimmy Henderson and Savannah Trotter, is far smarter than its silly exterior might let on. (The sets, resembling a pop-up picture book, are designed by Cameron Anderson.)
Del Aguila’s lyrics are easily digestible for young children, yet always inventive. (Rhyming “tadpoles” and “dad goals” is simply ingenious.) Alexander’s bop-worthy melodies, meanwhile, turn the dozen or so songs into easy earworms. (I’m unashamed to say that some of these numbers will no doubt enter my Spotify rotations when this musical’s cast recording is released in the fall.)
For children and adults alike, there’s much to enjoy in “Cat Kid.” And for 65 minutes straight, I felt totally immersed in Pilkey’s eccentric world.
Stage adaptations of existing IP don’t necessarily get the best rap these days. But “Dog Man” and now “Cat Kid” have proven to be the exception. Is it too much to ask for yet another Pilkey-inspired spinoff, please?
