Friday, February 1, 2008

New Theater Production of Custard the Dragon

First produced at the Kennedy Center for Performing arts, New York City's Algonquin Theater Productions is reprising through their youth division a limited New York run of Ogden Nash's The Tales of Custard the Dragon: A Family Musical based on the popular books of acclaimed author Ogden Nash for four Saturdays only. February 16 - March 8, 2008.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember the poem Custard the Dragon as a child. But didn't the original version say, 'realio trulio real live dragon' as opposed to 'little pet dragon'? My mom and I remember reading it this way, but I can't seem to find any proof to back it up.

John said...

Julia - it looks like there are versions using 'realio, trulio' - see this link http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/Custard.html

I'd take an educated guess and say that Nash was probably the first to coin "realio, trulio " as a phrase. He had no need to borrow when it came to creativity. There are many references to "realio, trulio" on Google outside of Custard which are probably a direct result of Ogden Nash's work. Thank you for raising the question!

Anonymous said...

Hey John. I'm sorry I wasn't specific enough in my first comment. I meant to call attention to the segment that says 'little pet dragon'. I seem to recall that it used to read 'real live dragon'.

Thank for for your time!

John said...

While I could not find a version with "real live" as opposed to "little pet" there may well have been such a version in circulation previously. Ogden Nash's works were sometimes copied without permission. In the process, key elements were often unintentionally gotten wrong - much to the consternation of Nash and his family. You could have come across a bootlegged version of Custard that inadvertently twisted the phrase!

Anonymous said...

Wow, I hadn't even considered that! Thank you so much for your time and help. I'll be checking in from time to time. I would have been quite an honor to know a literary genius like Ogden Nash.

 
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