The people of the magical island of Sodor are in a tizzy. The circus is coming, and they only have one day to make it a success. No one is prepared! What will they do?
Don’t panic. Thomas the Tank Engine will figure it out, with a little help from his friends.
“I play Percy’s driver,” says Ricky Whitfield, who also is the musical’s associate choreographer/dance captain. “Percy is Thomas’ best friend. He’s the youngest, the green engine. He gets picked on a bit, but [people] can always depend on Percy and Percy’s driver to get the job done.”
One way the people (and trains) of Sodor get things done is through audience assistance. “We sing a lot of songs with the ‘whoosh’ of the steam, the ‘round and round’ of the wheels and the ‘clanking’ of the joints [that] have hand movements for kids to do,” Whitfield says. “We have a song called ‘Circus Time on the Farm’ where kids get to do sheep and chicken sounds. At the end, we put everything together to make the sounds of all the animals and all the parts of the engine. During ‘Fun in the Rain,’ we invite all the audience to get up and do the hokey-pokey with us.”
But it’s a show that’s fun for the whole family, Whitfield stresses. “It’s a very witty script,” he says. “The parents get a kick out of that, and the sound effects, winks and physical jokes. The show brings everyone back to their childhood.”
One of the coolest things about the show is how the trains are built and operated. They all speak and have moving eyes and wheels. “They are like puppets,” Whitfield says. “The actors get inside. It’s like a big car, and we drive [them] onstage. There [are] doors on both sides, so as soon as we park the engine, we can get out on stage and be a regular human involved with the island of Sodor townspeople.”
Whitfield grew up watching “Thomas & Friends” on PBS and remembers how much he loved the sing-a-longs, visual effects and the humanity each train displayed. That’s part of the reason why he’s so thrilled to be doing the show for a new generation of Thomas the Tank Engine fans.
“I love this show,” he says. “I get happy every time I see a child dancing because I know that even though they’re being entertained, they’re getting lessons that will live with them for the rest of their lives.”
Thomas & Friends Live On Stage: A Circus Comes to Town chugs onstage June 26-28.
