Prokoviev’s classic Peter and the Wolf is reimagined at the Guggenheim Museum, an ingenious recreation from Isaac Mizrahi. The fashion designer cum cabaret performer has worked costuming for theater for decades, and for the Guggenheim’s program of “Works and Process” the Peter and the Wolf story is set, where else, but in the neighborhood, in Central Park.
Grandfather (Norton Owen), deaf and disoriented, speaks, through Mizrahi’a narration, with a Yiddish accent. Mizrahi-dressed, Peter (Kara Chen) wears a beanie with propeller, and Bird (Paige Barnett Kulbeth) wears gym shorts. Most brilliant of all, ill-fated Duck (Marjorie Folkman) looks like an edgy Park Avenue matron in tulle tutu and beaded cardigan, head covered in a schmatte. Cat (Zac Gonder) is suitably clad in velvety paws and pompoms, fashionably black with white and pink trims, while the gray Wolf (Daniel Pettrow) sports Ugg-like feet, with the Hunter (Derrick Arthur) an oversized boy scout. The look of this Peter and the Wolf is reason enough to attend, better still, to entertain your grandkids and their mother too. A more formidable reason is the talent of the musicians and dancers, who bring this simple story to life—with Mizrahi as host explaining how the instruments “color” these delightful characters.
Max (8) and his brother Zac (5), my companions, mesmerized by the musicians warming up, did not want the 30-minute performance to end, even after Wolf was suitably punished after eating Duck whole. This moment, offstage, could have been a deal breaker. No one wants Duck to disappear in Wolf’s belly. Spoiler alert: Duck is seen at end, knitting in orange, just like her webbed feet—disaster averted.
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