Pinkalicious The Musical to Open KU Presents! Family Series Nov. 17

By Susan L. Peña

KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The KU Presents! Family Series will delight children and their parents with “Pinkalicious: The Musical,” in the Vital Theatre Company tour of its long-running off-Broadway production 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17, at Kutztown University’s Schaeffer Auditorium.

Tickets for “Pinkalicious” are $20 for all ages and can be purchased at the KU Presents website or by calling the KU Presents! Box Office 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, at 610-683-4092. Established to be the center of cultural life at Kutztown University, KU Presents! serves the campus and community by bringing world-class live arts that entertain, educate and enrich.

The musical opened at the McGinn-Cazale Theatre on Broadway at 76th St., New York, in 2007 (a year after the publication of the beloved children’s book), and is still running at the Actors Temple Theatre on West 47th St., just west of Eighth Ave. But you don’t have to travel to New York to see it, because VTC has created a touring branch of the show that crisscrosses North America.

For the uninitiated, the book “Pinkalicious” was written by sisters Elizabeth and Victoria Kann for toddlers and early readers. The protagonist, Pinkalicious Pinkerton (inspired by Victoria’s daughter), loves eating pink cupcakes so much she winds up with “pinkititis,” which turns her pink from head to toe. She has to come up with a solution to her predicament, with the help of her parents and brother Peter.

The book, with illustrations and cover by Victoria and text by both sisters, became a New York Times bestseller, sparking a “Pinkalicious” craze that resulted in a 64-book series, the latest of which, “Pinkalicious: Lost in Paris,” came out this year.

VTC co-founder and producing artistic director Stephen Sunderlin said that previous to 2007, the company had been creating original work for children, including adaptations of Shakespeare plays, folk tales and fairy tales, building a reputation for quality children’s theater in New York.

“We never wanted to do a book show, because often children’s books are pedantic,” he said. But “Pinkalicious” was different; he and co-founder Michael Schloegl felt it had real potential for theater, and they decided to create the musical, with lyrics by the Kanns and John Gregor and music by Gregor.

“We usually did five shows a year and ran them for six weeks each,” Sunderlin said. “When ‘Pinkalicious opened, by the third week the entire run was sold out. So we moved it to off-Broadway. That’s when we realized the power of a popular book title.”

Since then, the company has created musicals based on other books, including “Fancy Nancy,” “Angelina Ballerina” and “Flight School.”

As they have toured “Pinkalicious,” Sunderlin said, “we have children – primarily girls – who have read the book and they’ve become rabid fans. I’ve had parents tell me they’ve read it over and over to their daughter every night for a year. One little girl met Pinkalicious after the show and burst into tears. After one show I heard a little girl say to her mom, ‘Oh my gosh, that was better than going to DisneyWorld!’ And parents tell me they enjoyed the show as much as the kids. It’s sophisticated enough to speak to parents of small children.”

Part of the appeal of the show, he said, is the eye-catching art, which is central to the décor of the show. And then, of course, the cupcake, tiara, wand and tutu that make up Pinkalicious’ regalia are quite popular. And everyone can relate to a story about a family who love each other and work together to find happy endings.

Because the show is aimed at children aged 2 to 7, Sunderlin said, “gender identity is not a problem. They’re all just little kids. The little boys like it, too, and they want the star wands. Even infants watch the sounds and lights, sitting up on their parents’ laps. And the dads aren’t on their cellphones; they’re watching with big smiles.”

The touring company uses a rotating cast, and VTC has its pick of some of the finest actor/singers in the country. “In New York, family theater is a gateway to the profession for many young actors (including Kristin Chenoweth). Since we perform off-Broadway, it can be their first off-Broadway credit after graduating from college. And we pay Equity rates.”

He said the company has been in existence for 25 years, although it went through some hard times during the COVID pandemic shutdown. Now they are “on the way back,” in spite of the fact that many presenters have shut down. Their survival, he said, is due to “the magic of storytelling. If you tell a good story, you can captivate the audience” even without elaborate sets and high-tech effects.