Review: Dot & Ziggy

Last Sunday, Little Miss and I went to the theater. It wasn't the first time we've been to the theater, but it was definitely different from any theater we'd been to in the past.

I was always a little leery of taking Little Miss to the "real" theater until about the last year or so. She doesn't sit still well, and she likes to talk. That and much of theater is too long for her, too. The Chicago Children's Theater is currently presenting Dot & Ziggy, a theater for babies and toddlers and is truly aimed at those as young as six months.

As you enter the Biograph Theater on Lincoln, you can immediately see that this sis not your usual play. There are chairs and tables set up with crayons and coloring pages (that Little Miss happily busied herself with while we waited for the seating to open up), and stroller parking is offered on the opposite side of the lobby. As we were called to the theater by a musician, we arrived in a large room with giant rugs scattered on the floor where we were to sit. Little Miss happily chose her spot, and we cozied down to wait for the play to begin.

I thought the play itself was very cute. It ran only about forty-five minutes, a perfect length for young children. In it, a ladybug (Dot) and a skunk (Ziggy) learned to be friends. It focused on very basic concepts from sharing to up and down or in and out to stripes and dots. There was also some musical accompaniment, and I have to admit that I still have "From stick to stone, I'll follow you home" going through my head nearly a week later.

While Little Miss was definitely on the upper age range at 5 years old, she rather enjoyed it - especially the bubbles at the end - until she read the card about the play and discovered it was for babies and toddlers. Then the grown up little girl announced she wasn't so sure about it. I enjoyed getting up with her and dancing - both the hoky poky that we knew and reaching up to the sky and to the ground in a movement I didn't know previously.

This is a perfect introduction to theater for young children, as it doesn't have too many characters or noises to be overwhelming and is short and accommodates those who need to move around or get up and leave mid performance. I will admit that the $16 pricetag during the week and $18 on weekends is a little steep for such young children to see a relatively short play. That said, tickets do all include discounts or offers to a nearby family-friendly partner restaurant.

The show is running through June 26 at the Victory Biograph Theater on Lincoln in Chicago. The shows are 10am Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, as well as 10am and 12pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Use discount code MOMDZ to receive $2 off tickets when purchasing them through the Chicago Children's Theater website.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was provided with tickets to see the show for myself and my daughter. I was not compensated, and all opinions expressed are my own. By posting this, I am eligible to receive tickets to a Chicago Children's Theater production.