Appropriate For Ages: 4-10

It’s February vacation week for the kids. Bostonist really misses being a kid sometimes. Taking road trips with the one kid who had his license in Junior High School, rec. department planned field trips in elementary school, and feature length cartoon movies on the VCR was a simpler life. Even before we were in school we enjoyed things like bedtime stories. Today Mike Mulligan comes to Boston with his steam shovel in a musical rendition Virginia Lee Burton’s classic book. The website says appropriate for ages 4-10, but Bostonist would rather they said ages 4 and up. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel was our favorite book growing up, the one that we asked to have read to us over an over. Bostonist promises nothing about the theatrical quality of this ArtsPower performance over in Newton Centre, but we say nostalgia value is very high. If you don’t remember the story it is the one where Mary Anne, Mike Mulligan’s steam shovel, digs the cellar for the town hall-in just one day! The problem is, Mary Anne has no way to get out of the basement, they didn’t leave a ramp. Mike Mulligan resolves the problem when he retires his steam shovel by turning her into a furnace that will keep everyone warm through winter. Now if only they made that Little Tikes "Cozy Coupe" in an adult size.