The Gingerbread Kid

The Gingerbread Kid at Coterie Theatre

When the magical child of two bakers eats the family’s sweets, trouble arrives warm from the oven. The Gingerbread Kid at the Coterie Theatre follows Allspice, who runs away after a sweet tooth leads to trouble—launching a chase through a topsy-turvy storybook world where familiar nursery-rhyme faces live side by side.

This isn't your orderly bedtime collection. Henny Penny and her gang cross paths with Little Boy Blue, while Foofinella—better known as Little Bunny Foo Foo—shares the landscape with a hungry fox. The collision of these characters, usually kept in separate tales, creates fresh comic friction as Allspice tries to outrun the mess Allspice has made. Each encounter brings new complications for a kid whose magical origins come with very real consequences.

Jodi Marr's pop score and Abe Reybold's book and lyrics give the whole adventure a contemporary musical pulse. The roughly sixty-minute format lets younger theatergoers follow the twists without overstaying welcome, while parents escape the marathon slog of traditional fairy-tale retellings.

Kansas City families looking for original musical storytelling will find it in a show that plays fair with old favorites while spinning them into something new. Allspice's predicament—and the strange crew Allspice meets along the way—promise wit, surprise and just enough mischief to keep everyone leaning forward.

Grab tickets to The Gingerbread Kid at the Coterie Theatre.