Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Puppet Theater

I've often wondered what innovation or creation the world never got to see because Jim Henson died so young. There were so many great ideas floating around in his head, between characters, voices, technical innovations, and whole other worlds, that I'm convinced that something he may not have even imagined yet would have come out and would have been great. But I could never imagine what it might be that we never got to see.

Saturday night I was with my family in Boston to see the Lion King at the Boston Opera House (basically, Broadway, but in Boston and in a smaller theater as part of their traveling show). I had never seen the theater version or even the movie version (I remember Elton John's hit songs from 20 years ago), so I really didn't know what to expect at all. The play starts, and as it's going on, I see different kinds of mechanics being used to bring these different animal characters to life. There's a bird that is a normal-looking puppet, but with the performer in sight. There is some animal controlled by an performer where he is the hind legs and is standing up in costume while the low body and front legs are plastic and controlled like a puppet. There was another animal later where the animal was basically pinned in front of the performer's costume and operated as a hand and mouth puppet. Other animals were performers in costume, but rather than an animal's face covering the performer's face, it was on a fixed attachment and hanging above. You get the idea. Different mechanical ways to bring different animal types to life that wasn't difficult for the performers (which is necessary because of all the speaking, singing, and moving around on stage they have to do).

Early in the show, that's when it struck me. The idea the world lost from Jim Henson was some sort of live stage production using different types of puppetry (but not something billed as a "puppet show"). Kind of like what I saw in the Lion King, but with even more puppetry.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

The Muppets Take Coney Island

Tonight the Brooklyn Cyclones had a very interesting promotion with the Muppets (yes, those Muppets).


The basic idea is that the Muppets have a recent movie that is coming out on DVD/BluRay next week, so they are promoting the film. And the Cyclones are a low level Minor League baseball team that has some promotion at every game. Lucky fans won copies of the yet-to-be-released DVD/BluRay combo pack of the Muppets Most Wanted. Some very very lucky fans got to meet the Muppets. And the scoreboard showed some very short taped sketches with the Muppets during a few of the inning breaks (baseball themed, like Kermit and Piggy introducing the kiss cam or Gonzo interviewing the star player about weird Gonzo-things). Aside from that, there was Muppet-themed scoreboard graphics and sound effects (namely Mahna Mahna playing when a fall ball went over the stands). They did play "Rainbow Connection" before the game and Sweetums threw out the first pitch.

But I left the game feeling somewhat disappointed in this event. Maybe because I spent over an hour in the car (and the balance of 2 hours with the trip home factored in) and easily $25 or $30 in tolls and parking combined just to get there (and back). The Brooklyn Cyclones ballpark is on Coney Island in Brooklyn, NY, which is not exactly around the corner from where I live in New Jersey (it measured at exactly 30 miles door-to-door). Maybe because I hear that the actual Muppets will be at the ballpark (their performers too) and I get it in my head that I need to bring something for them to sign because I get to meet the Muppets.

Let me look at it from 2 different angles.

Minor League Baseball
As a promotion for a Minor League Baseball game, having a theme and a giveaway for a well known brand is pretty cool. Heck, any giveaway that isn't a clown's nose (yes, that was a giveaway tonight too) or some Frisbee with a sponsor's logo on it is good. And having that actual brand be there, even if it was mostly hidden in taped video segments makes it that much better. It certainly brought out the die hard Muppet fans in the area (who, like me, probably had no real idea of what to expect so they all just showed up hoping for the best) that otherwise wouldn't have gone to the game. So it's a good promotion for a minor league club for sure.

The Muppets
The Muppets are a worldwide brand that has been around in this form for almost 40 years (and overall for almost 60). They have a motion picture that had a theatrical run earlier this year and the corresponding DVD/BluRay release next week. They are trying to promote it. But what does this promotion actually buy them? This is where I thought this promotion was not well put together. It's one thing to allow your brand for a theme at the ballpark (certainly no problems there) and even to give away copies of the DVD/BluRay (though I'm not real sure what it buys you). But having somewhat lame sketches (pre-recorded) and hiding the performers for a random lucky fan to meet and greet rather than letting them be out there with the crowd really wasn't what a minor league promotion should be about. And the Muppets certainly aren't minor league.

Update: I think I was working on this and falling asleep at the same time and left out a conclusion.
For a minor league baseball game, having the actual Muppets there was pretty cool, but having the actual Muppets there without really being able to see them was what left a taste of disappointment in my mouth. I wasn't one of the lucky fans to take home the DVD/BluRay disc, and that's okay. But the other stuff. The sketches were corny (they need better writers for these things) and they might as well have mailed in the effort if not for the super exclusive meet & greet they had somewhere.


Some pictures to illustrate the Muppet themes at the ballpark tonight:

The scoreboard at MCU Park with the logo for the event


Sweetums threw out the first pitch


Statler and Waldorf appeared a few times during the game doing their thing


The whole reason why we were there


Fozzie's appearance telling some bad jokes


The Muppets theme on the scoreboard graphics - used for each Brooklyn player after their first at bat


Gonzo interviewing Brooklyn's top prospect


Kermit and Piggy introducing the kiss cam


The Muppets gang thanking fans for coming out