Inspiration


The Three Little Pigs is a musical adaptation of the classic fairytale of the same name. Printed versions of The Three Little Pigs date back to the 1840s, but the story itself is thought to be much older. Joseph Jacobs published one of the best known versions of the story in the 1890s. The story is also reminiscent of a Brother's Grimm fairytale, The Wolf and The Seven Young Kids, from the early nineteenth century. The Three Little Pigs became popular in the United States through Joe Chandler Harris' Tales of Uncle Remus in 1880 and the Walt Disney cartoon version in 1933.

Singapore Repertory Theatre commissioned the Olivier Award-winning British songwriting team, George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, to adapt the fairytale for the stage.


Productions


The Three Little Pigs premiered at the Singapore Repertory Theatre in 2012, where it enjoyed a sold out run from March 2nd until April 15th. It was presented by SRT's The Little Theatre. The cast featured Ann Summers Lek, Oliver Pang, Celine Rosa Tan, Sebastian Tan and Tan Shou Chen.

In October 2013, The Three Little Pigs was featured in the National Alliance of Musical Theatre's 25th Annual Festival of New Musicals in New York City.

The show then enjoyed a run at the Greenwich Theatre in London and at the Emerald Theatre in Chicago, where it ran from January 22, through May 17, 2014. This was followed by a run at the Weston Playhouse in Vermont from June 19, through July 12, 2014.

Cultural Influence

• Stiles and Drewe are a prolific and well-known writing team. Their work includes Just So, Honk! and the Broadway and UK smash, Mary Poppins.

• The Three Little Pigs is the first installment in The Little Company Trio-Series at Singapore Repertory Theatre. The second and third installments are Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Billy Goats Gruff, respectively, also by Stiles and Drewe.

• SimG Records released a studio cast recording of the score in June 2011.

Trivia

• Cha, Siu and Bao are named for Stiles and Drewe's favorite dim sum dish, steamed buns filled with barbecue pork.

• George Stiles and Anthony Drewe met at Exeter University, where they started off as rivals.

• The Three Little Pigs is a ubiquitous fairytale in Western culture and has been adapted and referenced in a variety of media. The phrase "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down," used in the story, has become embedded in Western culture.

• NAMT has nurtured the creation, development, production and presentation of new musicals since 1985.