Teen Review of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

By Annie

If you give a mouse a cookie, you’ll end up with mouse ears and a face that hurts from smiling so much!

At least, >pilule that’s the lesson I got when I went to see If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. Even though I’m a teenager, I still found If You Give A Mouse A Cookie to be a hilarious play and a great experience. Having loved the book as long as I could read (and, honestly, way before that) I was excited to see it on stage but worried that it wouldn’t live up to my expectations. I needn’t have wasted any thoughts on that issue.

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the theater was the amount of young kids bouncing around the seats. I thought to myself, “They’ll never sit down for this!” Amazingly, when the lights went back on, I saw smiling faces on both the kids and the parent’s faces, and not a single one frustrated. THAT is the mark of a truly magnificent play!

Something that was a bit disconcerting at first was the stage. It’s bent so that it looks just like a kitchen must look to a little Boy and a Mouse; huge and daunting. From the very first line, I could tell that the whole play was built like the stage – to make kids feel more understood and to make adults remember what it was like when the counter was taller then they were. Many theaters would have a hard time capturing that, but the Arden did perfectly.

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie was a huge crowd-pleaser and a real heart-warmer, and it definitely went above and beyond my expectations. Bravo!