Additional Audition information:
Babes In Toyland is a fairytale type fantasy musical with a holiday theme
This is an original adaptation of the 1903 operetta.
Alan & Jane are the custody of their greedy, evil Uncle Barnaby. With the help of his bumbling sidekicks, Barnaby wishes to do away with Alan & Jane and keep their large inheritance for himself. Barnaby also wishes to take for his bride, Contrary Mary, the eldest daughter of the Widow Piper. Tom Tom, Bo Peep, Miss Muffett and the 10 other Piper children have an adventure searching for Mary, who has run away to escape Barnaby.
Drawing on the 1902 success of “OZ”, Babes takes the audience on a journey through strange places where our beloved characters face perils and overcome fears along the way.
Familiar characters, over the top personalities & beautiful costumes, combined with wonderful songs will make “Babes In Toyland”
A wonderful opportunity for an unforgettable family experience.
*Please review script excerpts and song to aid you in audition process*
Alan, nephew of Barnaby
Uncle Barnaby, a rich miser in love with Contrary Mary
Jane, his niece
Hilda, maid of all work in the Piper household
Roderigo, a sentimental ruffian.
Gonzorgo, his hard-hearted partner
The Widow Piper, a lonely widow with fourteen children
Tom Tom ,her eldest son.
Simple Simon, who is fond of fairs
Peter, who has a passion for pumpkin pie
Tommy Tucker, who sings for his supper and everything
Jack, who does chores
Boy Blue, who wants to be a farmer
Bobby Shaftoe, who wants to be a sailor
Contrary Mary, the Widow Piper's eldest daughter
Bo Peep, who is a careless shepherdess
Jill, who helps Jack.
Sallie Waters, who wants to get married
Miss Muffett, who is afraid of spiders.
Curly Locks, who wants to wed a title
Red Riding Hood, who is devoted to her grandmother
The Brown Bear
The Moth Queen
Master Toymaker (Santa), who designs the toys of the world
Grumio, apprentice at the Master Toymaker's workshop
Dandies, Butterflies, Flower Girls, Dolls, Toy Soldiers, Widows, and other various toys. Townspeople, etc.
ONE
BARNABY - TOM TOM - 3 PEASANTS
ACT I. SCENE I: The scene shows the garden of Contrary Mary, near the Widow Piper’s house. A cask of ale and decorations of pennons and bunting suggest a Christmas fete. A party of PEASANTS is engaged in a country dance as the scene is revealed.
(UNCLE BARNABY enters R. at the end of the dance, smirking and bowing right
and left. The PEASANTS snub him.)
BARNABY: Enjoy yourselves, enjoy yourselves, my dear friends. I am delighted to see
you so happy. Where are my little dears, Alan & Jane? Are they not here?
1st PEASANT: No, Master Barnaby, neither one of them has come to the celebration.
BARNABY: That’s strange. I am giving it to please them. To help them through yet another holiday season after the tragic loss of their Mother & Father.
2nd PEASANT: (Indignantly) What, Barnaby, are you our host?
BARNABY: Yes.
1st PEASANT: Only yesterday he seized Old Mother Hubbard’s house and turned her into the road. Now his bank has to ‘short sale’ it before they discover his Ponzi scheme.
(CROWD jeers at BARNABY)
2nd PEASANT: Let’s finish the afternoon by putting Barnaby under the town pump.
ALL: Hurrah! Town pump! Town pump!
(CROWD starts to take BARNABY L. TOM TOM enters from house L.)
3rd PEASANT: Look, here’s Tom Tom. (PEASANTS sing “Tom, Tom, The Piper’s Son“)
1st PEASANT: Hi! Tom Tom, you’re just in time!
TOM: (Coming down C.) What for?
BARNABY: (Rushing to TOM) To save me from the town pump! Stop ‘em, my boy,
stop ‘em. Don’t let ‘em hurt your future brother-in-law!
TOM: (Laughing) What, you? Which of my sisters has caught your miserly eye?
BARNABY: (Ecstatically) It’s Mary. Willful, but entrancing Mary!
TOM: Mary has now use for you or your rapidly dwindling, ‘so called’, fortune. You might as well try to turn off the sun and blow out the stars! (CROWD and TOM laugh.) But let him go, boys, as a favor to me. We may be relatives yet. (Goes down L.)
BARNABY: Ah! Then there’s hope for me with Contrary Mary?
TOM: Not a gleam. But someday, you may be my uncle-in-law.
BARNABY: (With pretended grief) Not if it’s my niece Jane you’re in love with. She
and her brother Alan are at the bottom of the sea. (CROWD gasps. Murmurs of disbelief)
TOM: I don’t believe it!
BARNABY: (Mopping eyes with handkerchief) They’ll never come back to their
broken-hearted Uncle Barnaby! (TOM TOM goes up stage.)
2nd PEASANT: And what’s their broken-hearted Uncle Barnaby going to do with their family fortune? (CROWD again gathers around BARNABY.)
BARNABY: (Hypocritically) I’m keeping it for them—the law forces me to do that.
3rd PEASANT: Trust you take good care of the money, you skinflint! You’ll be wise to keep out of our way if your news of Alan & Jane is true. And don’t be leaving town. We’re keeping an eye on you.
TWO
BOPEEP - TOM TOM - JILL - PETER - MUFFET - BOY BLUE - RED RH
BOPEEP: (After song) I’ve missed the party because those sheep got away—like
your cows, Boy Blue.
TOM: I’ve just found out why old Barnaby is paying for this party.
ALL: Why?
TOM: He wants everyone on hand to hear his engagement announced.
BOPEEP: Engagement, to whom?
TOM: Contrary Mary.
BOPEEP: Oh, Mary hasn’t gone and done a dreadful thing like that?
TOM: Not yet. But mothers set on the match, and is going to announce the wedding
anyway. (ALL express anger.)
JILL: Let Barnaby keep his old party! I’m going back to tidy up the stable!
BOPEEP: Party! He can’t buy us with lemonade and chocolate éclairs, can he, girls?
ALL: No!
PETER: I’d rather go without pumpkin pie forever than be nice to him!
TOM: Right you are, Peter. I hope all of you will keep out of trouble till I get back.
(Starts up R.)
ALL: Where are you going?
TOM: Away—this very hour, to look for Jane!
MUFFET: Have you told Ma you’re going?
TOM: In a letter I’ve left. If she heard of it now, she’d stop me.
BOY BLUE: Which way do you go?
TOM: I’ll start for the road by the forest.
RIDING HOOD: The one I always take to Grandmother’s?
MUFFET: Do keep out of that awful forest. They say it’s crawling with a million spiders!
TOM: (Laughing) No spiders for you, eh, Muffet?
MUFFET: (Shuddering) Br-r-r!
TOM: Who’ll go as far as the turn of the road with me?
ALL: All of us!
THREE
ALAN - JANE - MARY
ALAN: Remember, Jane, when we meet Mary, two is company and three is a mass
meeting.
JANE: Don’t worry, I know when I’m not wanted. (Sees bouquet left by BARNABY and
picks it up.) What a pretty bouquet! (Sniffs at it) M’m! How sweet! (Hands it to ALAN)
ALAN: (Sniffing bouquet) Wonder where it came from. What’s this? (Takes card from
heart of bouquet) A card. (Glances at it) Oh!
JANE: What is it?
ALAN: (Throws bouquet away angrily, reads card) “To darling Mary, from her future
husband.”
JANE: Oh, Alan! In your absence you have been passed up.
ALAN: I’ll never speak to her again. She’s a horrid thing.
MARY: (Offstage, in house) I won’t dress for the party. I won’t! I won’t! (ALAN
signals to JANE, who exits up L.; MARY enters from house L.) I’ll never go to another
party as long as I live. (Sees ALAN, who has turned away; quickly approaches him.)
Alan!
ALAN: Mary! (They almost embrace. Each stops suddenly. With a sudden change of
manner:) How do you do, Miss Piper?
MARY: (Stiffly) Very well, thank you. Don’t you think we need rain?
ALAN: Yes, a change. Some people can’t get along without change.
MARY: Especially if you get on a car with nothing but a large bill.
ALAN: (Pointing to bench) Won’t you sit down?
MARY: Thank you. (They sit stiffly.)
ALAN: I haven’t seen you for some time.
MARY: You’ve been away, haven’t you?
ALAN: Have you really noticed?
MARY: It just occurred to me.
ALAN: It’s a warm day.
MARY: What?
ALAN: Chilly, isn’t it?
MARY: Very. (Archly) I think I need something around me. (Repeats longer) I think I
need something around me.
ALAN: (Coldly) I heard what you said. (ALAN slides to other side of bench.)
MARY: Would you prefer to continue this conversation on the telephone?
ALAN: Speaking of telephones, here’s a ring I expected you to answer to. (Shows ring)
MARY: Isn’t it lovely? (Holds out finger for ring)
ALAN: I thought I would put it on, but it’s a case of party engaged—ring off! (Pockets
ring)
MARY: Alan, I don’t understand such behavior.
ALAN: Better ask your future husband to explain it.
MARY: My future husband? Who is he?
ALAN: Who is he? Is this a guessing contest?
THREE continued
MARY: Let me tell you right now that no man has the right to put my name on his
family monument.
ALAN: Don’t worry—your name will never improve my lot. And a lot you care!
MARY: What do you mean? (Rises, going L. C.)
ALAN: You’re somebody’s darling, an old man’s darling, perhaps a nice lovely old man
with millions. And you’re going to save him from the library habit.
MARY: Oh, don’t you think you’re smart.
ALAN: There’s my reason. (Shows card he has taken from bouquet)
MARY: It isn’t so. I don’t know who wrote this, and you’re horrid to believe it.
ALAN: I’ve got to believe my eyes.
MARY: You believe your eyes before you believe me? Then I’ve found you out in time.
You never loved me—and—don’t you dare to ever speak to me again!
ALAN: Goodbye, forever!
MARY: Goodbye, forever! (Neither moves.)
ALAN: I heard what you said. When you stand at the altar with my rival, think of me.
MARY: As what?
ALAN: Think of me as a broken-hearted monk.
MARY: In which zoological garden? (Exits into house L. JANE enters up L.)
JANE: Oh, Alan, what did Mary do to you?
ALAN: She didn’t do anything to me! Mary belongs to another. I’m going to take my
part of the fortune Uncle Barnaby is keeping for us and go far, far away!
JANE: I’ll get my money from him, too, and I’ll go with you!
ALAN: Where?
JANE: I don’t know, don’t you?
ALAN: Let’s get a map and stick a pin in it, and wherever the pin sticks, we’ll go.
JANE: I’ve got a pin. (Produces one) Come on!
FOUR
BARNABY - TOYMAKER
BARNABY: Confound that brat—and all brats—particularly the Widow Piper’s
children. Jeered at me, did they? Oh, to think of some way to make them suffer for it!
(TOYMAKER enters down L. To TOYMAKER:) You’re the king-pin of all the toymakers
I’ve heard. I’d like to hire you to make a few toys for me.
TOYMAKER: Ah, then you love the children too?
BARNABY: Oh, I simply dote on them.
TOYMAKER: What would you like me to make for them?
BARNABY: A lot of dangerous toys. Toys that a child would eagerly accept—that
would cripple ‘em, and even kill them in some clever way.
(JANE enters from arch. and overhears.)
TOYMAKER: Why do you hate the children so bitterly?
BARNABY: My late brother left me his to look after, two little fiends, a boy and a girl
named Alan and Jane. Vicious, bad-tempered heathens. What a life they have led me. Even their great fortune, which by law will be mine in a week, now that they’re finally and permanently gone, will hardly repay me for the trouble they have caused me.
TOYMAKER: Dead?
BARNABY: Yes, lost in the forest in my country long ago. I’ve seen the last of them,
thank heaven! The toys are to help me woo the many siblings of my true love, Mary, who I am soon to wed. (JANE exits silently through the arch.) Two hundred pounds if you’ll take the order—four hundred—five hundred!
TOYMAKER: No, no!
BARNABY: Eight hundred!
TOYMAKER: Eight hundred pounds for toys that wound and maim. Nothing shall
convince me that I’ve heard correctly. (Exits down R.)
BARNABY: Clever old fox—he wants more money. I’ll see him alone at his workshop
and close the bargain before I leave it. Oh! I’ll give those Piper imps a Christmas
present they’ll remember!
FIVE
BOPEEP - MUFFET - CURLY LOCKS - TUCKER - MARY
BOPEEP: Barnaby seemed happy when he passed us, he must have foreclosed another
mortgage.
MUFFET: I hate him more than spiders! (Shivers)
BOPEEP: I wonder what’s become of Mary anyway?
CURLY LOCKS: Maybe she’s married a title and is never going to speak to us again.
(MARY enters through the arch with a small milliner’s box on her arm.)
TUCKER: She wouldn’t do that. With all her contrariness Mary never was stuck up.
MARY: What’s more, she never will be. How are you all? Glad to see you all and hope
you’re glad to see me!
CHILDREN: It’s Mary! (General embrace)
BOPEEP: What in the world are you doing in Toyland?
MARY: I’m really truly a dressmaker at last. I make doll’s dresses for the Master
Toymaker—and my alias is Mam’selle Elisette.
BOPEEP: Why don’t you use your real name?
MARY: Burglars and dressmakers never do.
SIX
ALAN - 4 WIDOWS
1st WIDOW: (To ALAN) So you are to die shortly?
ALAN: Not very shortly—it threatens to be a continuous performance.
2nd WIDOW: But you’ll be saved if a widow proposes to you?
ALAN: I dare you.
3rd WIDOW: My husband ran a bread and pie shop and left me with thirteen children.
ALAN: A baker’s dozen, eh?
1st WIDOW: My husband kept a dairy, but he’s up there now. (Pointing skyward)
ALAN: Gone on his milky way.
4th WIDOW: Do you believe in marriage?
ALAN: At the present moment I’d die without it.
4th WIDOW: It isn’t so dangerous here as it used to be. All of our department stores are
adding divorce counters.
ALAN: I suppose they guarantee alimony and a cut glass butter dish with each decree.
4th WIDOW: My husband was a millionaire.
ALAN: Come up the street a minute, I want to talk to you. (Starts to take her aside)
1st WIDOW: I dote on art. Are you familiar with the old masters?
ALAN: Just now I’m looking for a new one.
1st WIDOW: I mean pictures.
ALAN: I mean a wife.
2nd WIDOW: To me!
3rd WIDOW: To me!
1st WIDOW: No! I saw him first! (WIDOWS surround ALAN, and he walks to the front
of the Court House. The WIDOWS follow him.)
ALAN: Get in line, girls, get in line! (Exits frantically into Court House)
4th WIDOW: (To others) Wasn’t he mean?
2nd WIDOW: Simply horrid
Please be prepared to sing the following MotherGoose rhymes.
"Mary Had A Little Lamb", "Rock-a-bye Baby" and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"
also, learn the following title song from "Babes In Toyland"
“TOYLAND” - by Victor Herbert
Toyland, Toyland, Little Girl And Boy Land
While You Dwell Within It You Are Ever Happy Then.
Childhood, Joyland, Mystic Merry Toyland
Once You Pass It’s Borders You Can Never Return Again.
Sing along and learn - http://www.archive.org/details/ToylandInF