Comedy Pet Theatre

I took my family of 3 kids, Hubby and my MOM to see this show last week at Grand Country Music Hall. It was a true treat for all of us.

This all-ages family show is running twice daily and we saw the 10:00am show on Tuesday. Gregory Popovich appears on video at the beginning of the show to explain that he decided in March to move his long-running show back to Las Vegas. But he continues to produce the new version of his show in Branson. In fact he contacted many of his animal trainer friends to bring their best acts to Branson for this show. And I must say that although I liked seeing Gregory's show three years ago when he was at the Magical Palace, I liked this new show even better because you never knew what was going to happen next.

The format of the new Comedy Pet Theatre is more like a modern variety show with many different segments currently running in the 105-minute performance. Whereas Popovich was on the stage 95% of the time in his own show, the current Branson version features 11 two-legged performers and 21 trained pets. And my husband commented that having more "human" performers made the show more interesting for adults to watch. Our kids, ages 13, 10 and 7 enjoyed the show for many reasons.

Included in the current line-up are The Fabulous Darnells with their magic and dog fashion show which is a hoot. I talked with them after the show (they are not triplets although they look like it) and they said they were last in Branson for shows at the Welk Theatre with the Lennon Sisters. My mom said later at lunch that she enjoyed seeing women performers on-stage that were closer to her own age and she thought kids would like to see their "Grandmas" up there performing too.

I thought about what she said and realized that while Branson has lots of old men performing, since Debbie Reynolds left town, there aren't many places where older women are seen on stage. This is a good thing and I think the tour busses filled with senior citizen cat lovers will enjoy seeing the Darnells for this reason.

The Panfilova Family is Russian and I assume they are friends of Popovich. Their cat act with Mayya Panfilova is fast-paced and is the featured spot in the show. They also do hula hoops for the kids and a costume quick change act that happens so fast, you can't stop to figure it out, but I think about it also everyday since then. How did they do that?

An emcee (I don't remember his name) keeps the whole show moving along and his cute little daughter rides the unicycle and my 10-year old spoke with her after the show and started immediately to beg us to go back and see the show again, two days later but we didn't have time. Something new this year is a talking parrot act and it is very good too. Near the end of the show, one of the parrots says 'shut-up' to all the other parrots and my kids thought that was very funny.

I would say if ever there was a show with something for everyone, this is it. The theater was cool and cozy and we visited the pizza and salad buffet after the show. This was recommended by the emcee and he was right, it was a perfect meal for our traveling family. My husband and my 13-year old son ate so much pizza, that I'm sure Grand Country lost money on them.

The theater has great sound and lighting systems and as is traditional with most shows in Branson, the performers have a formal Meet & Greet after every performance where audience members pose for photos and receive autographs and pawtographs. It is a very popular feature at this show as all the dog and cat lovers crowded around their favorite animals and asked questions of the trainers during this informative session.

No country music, but lots of laughs and entertainment. We also saw the Shanghai Circus on this trip and our kids liked comedy & PET theatre lots better.

-Submitted by miz

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