Interview: Zack Abbey Talks Playing the Half-Dog, Half-Man Hero in DOG MAN: THE MUSICAL

If you’ve got kids under 12, chances are you know all about the lovable half-dog, half-man hero known as Dog Man.

But did you know Dog Man is also a musical? The stage adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s record-smashing graphic novel series will play at the Kirk Douglas Theatre Sept. 12 through Oct. 18.

For Dog Man newbies: The series follows best friends George and Harold — the same mischievous fifth graders behind Pilkey’s equally popular Captain Underpants series — and the comic-book hero they create: Dog Man, a crime-fighting mashup born when an injured police officer and his equally injured police dog are surgically combined into one very unusual cop.

The show, which debuted Off-Broadway in 2019, takes the book series and brings it to life with all the cyborg fish, evil cats and unabashed 9-year-old-boy humor that have made the books a phenomenon among young readers.

BroadwayWorld caught up with Zack Abbey, the actor who plays Dog Man, to find out what it’s like to play a dog-human mashup, what happens when an audience full of kids meets its comic-book hero in real life, and why Dog Man: The Musical might actually charm the grown-ups, too.

Hi Zack! Thanks for talking with me! First of all: Where are you from?

I'm from New Jersey. I live in East Brunswick, in the central Jersey area.

Were you a fan of the Dog Man books before you got involved with the show?

I grew up with the Captain Underpants books, actually, so I'm the generation right before Dog Man, and those books dominated my childhood. They were so funny.

Now that I'm older, I recognize how cool it was to see somebody be able to relate to kids on a different level, and kids that didn't necessarily feel like they were the popular kids or the cool kids, but just be able to have a good time telling stories. I think that's so important for children who may not have all the friends in the world or aren't the ones who can do sports and things like that.

For BroadwayWorld readers who may not know the books, can you explain “Dog Man” in a nutshell?

Our show is a little different than the books. It follows the story created by George and Harold, characters people who have read Captain Underpants will know very well. They want to write this musical because they've been kicked out of school, and they want to write “Dog Man” because they've seen so many other books and stories be turned into musicals, and they're like, “Well, let's do it with one of ours.”

It's the idea of a cop and his dog who are going through the world, and there are villains that they have to face in this world dominated by people and animals. One of the big villains is Petey the cat, who ends up — spoiler alert — blowing them up, and they become a character, Dog Man, who is part dog, part man, all hero. He's a cop body with a dog head.

You follow their adventures and see where they go. You see the battles that they face. You see the turmoil that they go through, trying to understand the dichotomy of wanting to be a good boy, but also recognizing the fact that this is something that a dog is not supposed to be. It tells so many different stories all in one. We follow Petey and Li'l Petey, who is Petey's clone, and there's this beautiful father-son relationship that grows from a cat who didn't have parents that cared for him as they should, and is now taking up the mantle of what a father should be. The intertwining stories that connect to everyday people, adults and kids, are beautiful.

Obviously, kids are going to love the show. What do you think the grown-ups get out of it?

“Charming” is the best way to put it. Of course, there are going to be jokes that kids don't fully understand and parents will. They're not adult jokes in any way, but they're just jokes that people get on different levels depending on their age or their experience in life. 

But truly the most integral part of that connection between parents and kids is the story of Petey and Li'l Petey . . . Everybody comes from different places and different experiences, and bringing a child into the world and wanting to make sure that you raise them the right way, you give them what they need and, in some ways, you give them the experience that you didn't have, is exactly the story of Petey and Li'l Petey.

Petey goes through that turmoil in himself, recognizing that, “Well, I might be evil, but this beautiful, loving little creature that is part of me comes into the world with nothing but love and nothing but care and wanting to give all of that to everyone.”

It's kind of like the story of the Grinch, when his heart grows three times bigger when he finally experiences that love. In a very similar way, Petey is experiencing that unrelenting love and care and realizing the world's not so bad.  

Dog Man isn't necessarily a book you'd expect someone to turn into a musical. Why do you think it works as one?

I unfortunately don't have the answer when it comes to a legitimate production side. I think a lot of the things that I've been talking about — the world is such a crazy place and there are so many chaotic things going on, but one of the things that we always want to remind ourselves is to love and care for everyone around us, especially in times nowadays. That's such an ever-present thing in all of the different Dog Man books . . . that unrelenting love and care for everyone is so important. 

Dog Man is an unusual role because you have almost no dialogue. How do you convey all of those emotions without words and get into that dog character?

You could talk about how clown physicality works and how mime physicality works, and how they try to convey what they're feeling and the story they're telling without words, or mostly through physicality. It's like that, in a way. . . . When he's sad, you have that experience of getting smaller — of crawling into yourself and almost becoming the idea of a dog that whimpers away. Or when you're proud, you have that idea of being a superhero, and you're getting that nice Superman pose or something, so that you are giving your heart and the excitement that you have out.

You've also covered Petey. Is Dog Man a harder role to play because it's so physical and you don't have dialogue to guide you?

It is definitely harder. It is such a physical role that there are moments that you do need to take time to care for exactly what you're doing physically, as opposed to knowing that, in a scene, Petey is going to go through an arc and you're going to have physicality to it, but you know that the dialogue is guiding you. In that same way, you have dialogue that guides you as Dog Man, but you want to make sure that you are portraying that and not just taking in what they're saying. You have to give it to the audience. You have to share that experience with the audience.

For me, Dog Man is, in a way, a very collaborative experience between myself on stage and the audience. I almost feel like, in a lot of ways, I need to make sure that what I'm feeling, the audience is also feeling. Obviously, that's in any case of doing a show, but even more so when there are no words to describe what you're feeling. You want the physicality to invite the audience in, to almost hold their hands. “Oh no, this is sad, and I can feel it in the way that Dog Man is feeling it.”

What's it like performing this show for an audience full of kids? 

It's awesome. We do a couple different audience versions. We have shows that are school shows, and it's just a bunch of schools from the area, and then we also have all the shows where kids and families come. Obviously, the school shows, they're much louder. It's a day that kids get to not be in class and then to go have fun. But they are so excited to see their heroes, in a way, on stage.  

One of my favorite things is when we have a show, whether it's public or just a school show, and Li'l Petey has this recurring sequence where they'll be like, “Why?” The kids love joining in on that. You'll get kids, not even in time, they'll just be shouting, “Why?” because it's so awesome to them.

There are a couple other moments, too, where they just blow up. Not to spoil anything for any of the kids out there, but we have a dance scene that, with some lighting involved and some of the set pieces, definitely gets the kids up out of their seats, shaking and dancing around. The excitement and the feeling that you get from that is incredible.

What age do you think is ideal for the show?

Third grade to just before they get to middle school seems to be the perfect age. There are definitely some kids that are a little younger and some kids that are older, but in my mind, it's always been perfect for that third grade to sixth grade.

What does the musical bring to “Dog Man” that the books and movie can't?

I think the thing the musical does is invite you in in a more intimate way. Obviously, you can read a book and you can feel that experience, and you can go and see a movie. But live theater can incite an audience, as well as kids, to be involved in such a different way than a book and a movie can.

That example of the kids shouting “Why?” or actively getting up and dancing in the audience, I feel like that in itself is exactly the answer to your question.

Okay, some quick rapid-fire questions. What's your favorite “Dog Man” book?

“Tale of Two Kitties.”

What's your favorite childhood book?

Inkheart. I read it in fifth grade.  

What's your favorite song in the show?

I think it's that Flippy song.

George or Harold?

I’ve got to go Harold. One of my best friends has been Harold the last two years on tour, and I just love the actor and I love the character Harold.

Dogs or cats?

Cats. I've grown up with both, but I just have a sweet spot in my heart for those cute little guys.

Last question: If Dog Man could actually speak in the musical, what do you think he'd say?

I think if Dog Man could speak in the musical, the number one thing he would say is, “Give me a treat.”

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