A musical puppet show, “The Cat that Went to Heaven” is based on the award winning 1930 book of the same name by Elizabeth Coatsworth. This staged rendition of the story was created by Nancy Harrow, who wrote the music and lyrics, and directed by Will Pomerantz.

The storyline is supposedly based on an old Buddhist folk tale, and tells the tale of an artist in a small village in ancient Japan who is struggling to sell his paintings. He sends his housekeeper out with a few coins to buy some fish, but she comes back with a cat! Though he is angry at first, the beautiful white cat manages to win over the artist's heart.

The artist is finally hired to paint a picture of the Buddha with all of the animals who visited him on the night of his death. But he realizes that a cat is not one of the animals who came to visit the Buddha on the night of his death. Even though it feels wrong not to include the cat, he must honor the original story. But each day he paints, his cat comes to see if a cat has been included. The artist is so troubled by the cat’s grief that he decides to paint a small cat in the corner of the picture, even if it means losing the money and the respect of the Buddhist priest.

This absolutely fabulous children's production uses the techniques of Bunraku and shadow puppetry. Bunraku dates back hundreds of years in Japan (founded in Osaka in 1684), and is the art of using puppets that are larger than we are accustomed to in the United States. They are designed to be manipulated in ways that give much more control over the character's movement, yielding more entertaining action. They are usually controlled by more than one puppeteer, all of whom are dressed in black garb and face-covering to minimize distractions for the audience.

"The Cat that Went to Heaven" includes an original jazz score featuring shamisen and koto instrumentation. At just 45 minutes, this wonderful show leaves everyone wanting more.