Feature: HOORAY LA at Bob Baker Marionette Theater

Bob Baker Marionette Theater couldn’t pick a more accurate title for their current offering than Hooray LA. The show is a celebration of LA’s culture, history, people, landmarks, and traditions that— without shying away from the dark stuff— manages to delight Angelenos across a spectrum of generations. The witty, Vaudevillian repartee that strings the musical numbers together is gently sarcastic about LA’s freeway traffic (as illustrated by a chorus of teddy bears in cars with operable headlights), the cooky characters on the Venice Boardwalk (here presented by adorable creatures on roller skates plus a show-stopping, long-boarding marionette), and even the oil  derricks which speckle the horizon (of course at BBMT, the derricks join together in a kick line). Narration is snappy and concise, but still fills in all the gaps for those not caught up on their local history. From the days the woolly mammoths were getting trapped in La Brea, to the founding of Hollywood’s film industry, to traditional Lunar New Year celebrations in Chinatown, this revue is jam-packed with all the good stuff without ever becoming a stilted history lecture.

Around the theatre, sketches and design materials outline some of the updates that have been made to this iteration of the show. Notably, the La Brea Tar Pits sequence has become more historically accurate as mammoths replaced anachronistic dinosaurs, the Chinatown sequence has been redesigned to more accurately present the golden Chinese dragons, and conversations about what it means to celebrate a city which sits on the unceded homes of the Tongva peoples permeate the whole production. In chatting with Alex Evans, BBMT’s co-executive director and head puppeteer, it is clear that all of these updates, discussions, and changes would likely be celebrated by Bob Baker himself. “I hope Bob would be excited the process is still going and the theatre is still living,” he postulates about the man with whom he used to work side by side. “Bob was the biggest dreamer I ever met. He was always wanting to update and change (the shows). He would add all these layers— his mind was never still and he never moved on. ‘How can we make this better?’”

Evans goes on to explain, “The shows have never been Bible or locked in place.” He recalls how photographs of Bob’s shows from the 60s look different from what he wanted to do in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The puppets themselves, the shows, and the theatre overall have always changed over time. “We still make changes for creative reasons,” he expounds, “but even more now, we are factoring in our audience and the world around us. We want to honor the intentions of our original shows, but we also want to feel comfortable having conversations about what people should take away from the show. These are nuanced conversations we can plan on having for the rest of time.” A diverse range of ‘community stakeholders’ enthusiastically contributed ideas to update this revue and, in classic BBMT fashion, it was a community effort to get everything ready for opening day.

There’s a lot to celebrate about this production— I haven’t even mentioned my favorite sequence in the show, but I’m sure it will leave you purr-fectly delighted— newly-renovated parlors for your after-show ice cream, an interactive online resource, and complimentary tickets for members of SAG, WGA, and IATSE for the duration of the strike. Do yourself a favor amidst this heat and reinvigorate your love of this city with this unabashed celebration.

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