Production
After the release of Barney Live in New York City , Sloan Coleman went to Richard C. Leach, who helped launch Barney, to suggest making Barney live events bigger. Coleman requested one million dollars and the best Rock ‘n’ roll tour manager he can find, which became the basis for Barney's Big Surprise. [3] At first, it was envisioned as a show that would play in theaters, much like the performance at Radio City Music Hall in 1994, however, the show was too big to play in theaters. [1]
After doing the music for the attraction A Day in the Park with Barney , Joseph Phillips was approached by Coleman to do the music for the tour of Barney's Big Surprise. Phillips (and his crew) mixed and edited the show while it was being rehearsed at the same time.
David Voss, who was the original Barney costume actor, served as the Dance Captain and Cast Manager for the tour. Following the original run in the US, Pablo Glattli and Esteban Grossy choreographed and directed the show for the South American run while Kym Halpin directed the Asian run of the tour. Penny Wilson, the original director and choreographer of the tour, directed for the Mexican run in 2006, alongside David Voss.
Casting
Coleman auditioned 100 professional child actors from the Dallas area between the ages of ten to twelve who look seven to eight years old to be in the children's cast. [4] Initially, Danielle Vega was asked to be apart of Barney's Big Surprise but was eventually swapped to be a series regular on Barney & Friends portraying Kim. [5]
Release
The show made its world premiere on September 10, 1996 at Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, Texas. [6] It ran until 1998. Originally meant to tour in sixty cities, the tour performed in over eighty cities during its original run. Barney's BIG Surprise! sold nearly two million tickets during the original run. [7] Along with performances in the US and Canada, the show also toured in Mexico and the United Kingdom in its initial run in 1998. Subsequent productions of the show were performed in Asia from 2004 to 2005 and Latin America from 2005 to 2007. A portion of the proceeds from the tour benefited the Starbright Foundation, which aids seriously ill children. [8] [9]
Broadcast television
The video aired on PBS on March 4, 2000, being the fifth of only eleven Barney Home Video's to be televised on that network. In the television version of the video, the songs "Mr. Knickerbocker", "Hey, Look at Me! I Can Fly!", "Six Little Ducks", "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", "Little Miss Muffet", "Little Boy Blue", and "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" were omitted.
Reception
Los Angeles Times critic Lynne Heffley noted that the "feel-good formula" for the stage show was similar to a Barney television episode: "hugging, singing, dancing, more hugging and a little advice", and she found the result to be "lively, expertly staged and a lavish visual treat", although she suggested earplugs given the loud volumes. [9] In the Chicago Tribune , Eric Fidler commented that "Judging Barney through the eyes of an adult is pointless. For an adult unable to relax and suspend judgment, the show was a vision of some twisted hell. But kids were in heaven." [11]
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