Entertainment

In the great green room, there was a telephone and, to the delight of Sunday's packed house at Dallas Children's Theater, a cow in a picture that came to three-dimensional life and tried and tried and tried to jump over the moon.

And if little voices were hard to still at the regional premiere of Goodnight Moon, it was difficult to object to the tiny patrons (largely between 1 and 3) crying out in concern, "Where's the kitty?" when the kitten puppets slip under the bed. Or offering a happy "Hi" to the moon as the projection of a giant smiling face appears on a suspended circle screen and talks tenderly to the little bunny, promising that they will always be friends.

The musical adaptation of Margaret Wise Brown's classic, commissioned by Seattle Children's Theater, is running at the Rosewood Center for Family Arts. It transposes Ms. Brown's slender 1947 book, a five-minute read of 130 words about a bunny who says goodnight to all the objects in his room, into an 80-minute theatrical extravaganza (including a 10-minute intermission) that kept tiny attentions glued.

Credit goes to director Nancy Schaeffer's clever rendering of Chad Henry's book, music and lyrics, and a set that bubbled with life thanks to the seamless integration of Randel Wright's stage design (so faithful to the illustrations of Clement Hurd) and the magic of Kathy Burks Puppetry Arts multifaceted puppet effects.

Two of the three paintings on the walls are on scrims, and when the lighting shifts we see the cow puppet and also three little marionette bears sitting in chairs and then walking out of the picture to transform into three actors in bear costumes who stride onstage and play musical chairs with the bunny.

Brian Hathaway brings mischievous verve and a mellow singing voice to the bunny with an endlessly inventive list of reasons not to sleep. And he gets terrific support from a six-person ensemble that includes actors doubling as puppeteers and musical director B. Wolf, who performs onstage in a long nightgown and nightcap.

Like the seemingly ordinary objects in the room that roar to life – the lamp, the toy house – Ms. Wolf occasionally finds herself drawn into the action, playing the piano with the bunny. The Tooth Fairy marionette is puppeteered onstage by fleet-footed Douglass Burks, who also voices Clarabelle, the moon-jumping cow, as well as the live projection of the talking face of the moon and Mr. Nobody, whose only visible appendages are fluorescent feet and hands dancing in the dark.

Our only caveat: It would have been fitting if the bunny had eventually fallen asleep, but he was alert to the very end (to the consternation of Deborah Brown's warmly maternal "little old lady whispering hush") – much like the young audience. Still we suspect many may have fallen asleep in the car on the way home, clutching the copies of Goodnight Moon they brought to the show.

Plan your life

Through Feb. 24 at the Rosewood Center for Family Arts, 5938 Skillman St. 80 mins. $14 to $23. 214-740-0051, www.dct.org.