Review: THE SNOWMAN AND THE SNOWDOG at Imagination Stage

THE SNOWMAN AND THE SNOWDOG is a loved, British animated short children’s film and you can now see it acted out on stage at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, MD.

Show by show and class by class, Imagination Stage is igniting a love of theatre in young children. Their shows are visually appealing, and while I usually like what I’ve seen performed, this one missed the mark just a little bit for me and my son. A big reason for this is because of the plot of the story.

Billy (played by Drew Sharpe) writes to Father Christmas, asking for another dog because his dog died. The audience sees his dog sick, so the mood is despairing in the beginning and a little sleepy. For young audiences, this makes it hard to keep their attention, at least, that was my challenge.

My 5-year-old did enjoy the rotating stage and the snowman, even commenting the snowman was “cool” and he wants to make one of his own at home. I wish I was as enthusiastic about the impending snowfall.

The mood of the show does trend up as the snowman and the snowdog come into Billy’s life. It challenges the audience to use their imaginations as the main characters actually fly in the sky through a winter wonderland. There is ski racing creatively depicted using large white sheets and characters on sticks. There is also some dancing and singing and Drew Sharpe has a great voice. Spoiler alert – it’s a happy ending when Billy gets a real dog at the end of the play. It’s an actual, real-life dog named Sammy and the kids in the audience respond positively, as you would imagine young children would.

THE SNOWMAN AND THE SNOWDOG didn’t have a ton of dialog and overall, it was too low energy for me. However, Imagination Stage puts on a lot of good shows and I look forward to the next one.