THE BASICS: CORDUROY, adapted for the stage by Barry Kornhauser based on the “Corduroy” and “A Pocket for Corduroy” books by Don Freeman, directed by Connor Graham, starring Matthew Rittler in a cast of 6. 5/2 – 5/16, Sat-Sun at 2:00. Understudy Performance Saturday, 5/9. Sensory-Friendly Performance Sunday, 5/3 at 10:00 am (use code: SENSORY25) Recommended Ages: 3 and up. theatreofyouth.org/corduroy
RUNTIME: 90 minutes plus a 10-minute talkback after every performance
THUMBNAIL SKETCH: Lisa and her mother are shopping in a department store when Lisa spots a teddy bear in the toy section, one wearing a green corduroy jumper with a missing button. Lisa, recognizing a kindred lonely soul, is immediately smitten and pesters her mother to buy him, but her mother refuses. Determined, Lisa negotiates extra chores in exchange for a higher allowance so she can save up enough to purchase the bear herself, whom she has already named “Corduroy.” The chores, however, do not go well, much to her mother’s exasperation.
Meanwhile, back at the store, in a parallel storyline, Corduroy has become equally determined: he won’t be fit to go home with a child until he finds his missing button. His search through the store leads to one mishap after another, to the security guard’s growing frustration. Running alongside both storylines is a whimsical subplot involving two store mannequins who spring to life whenever no humans are around. Note: the original 1968 picture book by Don Freeman doesn’t include a subplot about Lisa having trouble making friends, extra chores, or living mannequins. Those elements have been added to flesh out this stage version.
In his Director’s Note, Connor Graham writes: “At its heart, Corduroy tells a simple and powerful story. Corduroy believes that if he could just find his missing button, he might finally be chosen. But along the way, he discovers something much more important: the things that make us different or imperfect are not what keep us from belonging. What truly matters is friendship, kindness, and finding someone who sees us for who we are. As you watch the play, put yourself in Corudoy or Lisa’s shoes. Have you ever felt lonely and needed a friend? Do you know someone who sits alone at lunch on the playground? I believe that in today’s world, a small act of friendship can change everything. Who knows, you may just make a friend for life.”
THE PLAYERS, THE PLAY, THE PRODUCTION: Theater of Youth (TOY) has always taken its mission seriously, and that commitment is evident in its casting. The company consistently attracts some of Buffalo’s finest performers, many of whom have held leading roles on other stages across the city, and the production of CORDUROY is first-rate.
The title role is largely non-speaking. Corduroy wanders the department store repeating little more than “Button?” as he searches for what he has lost, a plot device known in screenwriting as a McGuffin, the object that motivates but is not important in itself. And yet Matthew Rittler makes the role utterly compelling. Those who have seen him in other productions will know his singing voice, his dramatic range, and his ease with musical theater. Here, it is his physicality that takes center stage: his mime technique and acrobatic skill do the emotional heavy lifting that words would otherwise carry, and he succeeds. Credit is shared with Movement Coordinator Kathleen Golde, whose work is visible throughout the production in the clear, expressive physicality the entire cast has developed.
If Rittler is one of the production’s anchors, the other is the set itself. Scenic Designer Dyan Burlingame has created a department store environment that is genuinely theatrical, and Prop Designer JC Hartloff has populated it with delights: vacuum cleaners that move of their own apparent accord, a blender that produces cascading bubbles, a trash can that spectacularly falls apart, and rolling set pieces large enough to conceal an actor from our sight. TOY productions have long made “theater magic” a signature element, but CORDUROY raises the bar. Sound Designer Dynelis Santana Quintana and Technical Director Bill Baldwin (whose spot-on cuing is essential to the split-second timing these effects require) deserve credit for making the magic land as cleanly as it does.
Young Lisa is played by Shylah Akiya, a freshman at the University at Buffalo, with a natural style that is genuinely impressive. She neither overplays the character nor sentimentalizes it. Children respond well to honesty, and that honest portrayal is a product of both innate talent and the steady hand of director Connor Graham. Lisa’s mother is played by Anika Pace, a performer who has stopped shows in both dramas and musicals around Buffalo in recent seasons. She brings that same authority to a role that might easily be reduced to a plot function, making Lisa’s home life believable and an anchor around which the other characters can do their zany dance. And those other characters, in addition to Corduroy are:
The bumbling Night Watchman, in the hands of Bill Baldwin, a 1987 graduate of Ringling Brothers Clown College. His physical comedy and his timing remind us that clowning, at its best, is a rigorous and demanding discipline. Baldwin gets some of his biggest laughs from quick-change trousers with a hole in the seat (Ken Shaw, Costume Designer, and Jennifer Lynn Carter, Wardrobe Manager).
Rounding out the company are Vinny Murphy and Kai Crumley as the two Mannequin-Clowns, characters drawn from the theatrical tradition of commedia dell’arte: figures who exist just outside the logic of the “real” world and comment on it through play, mischief, and exaggerated physicality. Murphy and Crumley bring charm, energy, and genuine comedic instinct to the roles, and the Understudy Cast (see photo) promises to carry that spirit forward with equal warmth.
A FINAL THOUGHT: Theater has always been one of the places where we build what might be called our empathy muscles, and that work begins earlier than we sometimes acknowledge. For young children, the first step toward empathy is learning to name their own feelings. TOY’s playbill for CORDUROY includes a simple but useful exercise drawn directly from the play: a list of nine words, Happy, Lonely, Excited, Curious, Scared, and Worried, Sleepy, Angry, and Surprised, with the invitation to consider which of them describes what Corduroy felt during his search. It’s a small thing, but a meaningful one. The play does not simply tell children that feelings matter. It shows them, through movement and image and story, and then asks them to put words to what they saw. Take the playbill home and do some of the activities. The conversations they invite are worth having.