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Youth & The Arts

Catch Dinner & a Show —at The Same Time!
By Juliet Piccone

It’s time to catch dinner and a show, which is the Three Little Bakers Dinner Theatre’s motto, and I couldn’t have said it better myself. Three Little Bakers is a Country Club and a Dinner Theatre, so one can spend the day playing golf and then catch a show or in this case, a musical. 

My mom, brother and I saw their new production, Big – The Musical, based on the 1988 hit movie starring Tom Hanks. The show runs to Oct. 29.

When we arrived, we were greeted at the door and bought our tickets and then headed to the lobby where there is a gift shop where one can buy souvenirs from any of the theatre’s productions. As you walk through the lobby, you enter this huge room, which my brother described as looking like the Kimmel Center with the stadium seating.

The unique thing about this theatre is that you are seated at a table and have the option of eating dinner and dessert during the play. When we first entered the actual theatre, we sat down at our table and were immediately served drinks and told about the menu. Then we were free to go to the dessert and dinner buffet. The buffet served fish, ham, roast beef, green beans, mashed potatoes and chicken, everything was flavorful and excellent. After, we headed up to the buffet for dessert, which was equally tasty and featured a huge variety of treats from chocolate crème pie to macaroons.

About 15 minutes before the show began the owner of the theatre came out on the stage and announced that the show was going to start soon.

It’s a great place for an anniversary dinner or a birthday dinner. A long time tradition at the theatre is to award the couple with the longest anniversary or the person whose birthday it was with a complimentary bread basket. The owner opened up the floor for dancing, and the majority of the audience sprang up and danced for about 10 minutes until the lights dimmed and everyone took their seats to watch the musical.

For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, it is about a young boy named Josh who feels like it is a disadvantage being a child: he can’t go on the rides at the carnival in town, he doesn’t know how to talk to girls, and his parents are always on his back. One night, Josh goes to the carnival with his best friend and they come upon this magical wishing machine. Josh was very disappointed because he was just told he was too little to go on the ride he wanted with Cynthia, the girl he was interested in. His wish was to be big.

The next morning Josh wakes up and discovers that he is not his 13-year-old self; he is a 30-year-old man! Josh panics and runs away from home to New York City. His best friend loans him some of his father’s old clothes and tells Josh to get a job because it is going to take four weeks to find the magic machine he wished on.

At first, Josh is apprehensive about living all alone in a big city. Soon enough he finds a job working as the Marketing Director for his favorite toy company. Josh falls in love with the adult world of working, meeting new people, and being big. He overcomes all of his fears and learns to enjoy himself and falls in love with one of his coworkers. You’ll have to see the show to see what happens next!

Everyone in the audience loved it. The musical was upbeat and the performers were unbelievable. Each song was perfect and the performers never missed a beat. The musical brought out many emotions from the audience: some laughed, others cried, and everyone could relate to how Josh was feeling. I really enjoyed the whole experience, and it was one I will never forget and I look forward to seeing more of the theatre’s productions.

Juliet Piccone is a junior at Moorestown High School.