Barney's Musical Castle (2001, USA)

***Barney's Musical Castle*** is a stage show that was directed and choreographed by Penny Wilson, written by Evan Viola with songs in the show written by various individuals. It was the second national stage show tour (after *Barney's Big Surprise*) based on the American live-action educational children's television series *Barney & Friends*. The show made its world premiere on September 15, 1999 at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas.

Produced by Lyrick unit Leach Productions, the show toured in North America until 2001 and was nationally sponsored by Luvs. The show was announced to play in eighty cities over the course of the original run. During the show's original run, it drew more than nine hundred ten thousand attendees to two hundred forty-three performances and saw $17.5 million in ticket grosses. Following North America, the show toured in Australian and Mexico in 2000 in its initial run, it was later performed in Asia, starting with Singapore and Malaysia in 2005, Argentina and Chile in 2006, Mexico again, The Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela in 2007, the Middle East in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates in 2009 and Qatar in 2010, and in Singapore in 2012-2013, Puerto Rico Again in 2014, along with performances in Peru on in 2014 and Chile in January 11, 2016 until January 15, 2023. A portion of the proceeds from the tour benefited the National Children’s Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating child abuse.

On March 6, 2001, *Barney's Musical Castle* was released on home video having the show filmed at the Rosemont Theater in Rosemont, Illinois in March 2000.

## Plot

### Act 1

The show opens with the announcer announcing that this show is made possible by the audience’s imagination. As the music builds up, a bigger castle comes onto the stage. During this, the “Barney Theme Song” builds and erupts, in which Barney jumps through the castle opening, waving and greeting the audience as he skips around on stage. Seeing the audience makes Barney want to sing, leading into the “Musical Castle Sing-Along Medley”.

After the medley, four children run onto the stage by the names of Penny, Andy, Jessica and Justin, in which Barney introduces to the audience. Wondering what they were doing, the children tell Barney that they were making flags for their sandcastle until a big sign with a castle and legs came by. Andy concludes that the sign possibly wanted to lead them to a real castle. The children then exclaim that they’d like to visit a castle, in which Barney tells them that they have to use their imaginations, leading into the song “Castles So High”. After the song, Barney and the children see The Sign again, and figure out how to communicate with it. After learning how to communicate with The Sign, Barney and the children learn that The Sign wants Barney and the children to follow it, as it will lead them through an enchanted forest and lead them to a real castle.

The gang follows the sign to the enchanted forest, where they notice pretty flowers, queuing the song “What Makes a Flower So Pretty”. During the song, dancing flowers come out on stage and then leave as the song ends. After the song, Barney and the children hear Baby Bop, who was hiding in the flowers. She comes out, greets the audience and then wonders what they’re doing in the enchanted forest. Learning that they’re going to a real castle, Baby Bop decides to join them. After Baby Bop sings “Look at Me, I’m Three”, The Sign shows everyone that the king lost his crown. Barney concludes that The Sign brought them along, so they could return the crown to the king. Soon the sun comes out, and the path to the castle is gone. BJ comes out and declares that they can count on him to help find the path again, leading into the song “You Can Count on Me”. After the song, Jessica shows BJ The King’s crown. BJ notices a note inside the crown that Barney reads. The note tells them to ask the bunny, fox and bear to help them find the path. When finished reading the note, a bunny, fox and bear comes out on stage, leading into the song “Here in the Forest”, with the addition of a skunk appearing later in the song. During the song, the animals help to make a new path, however everyone has to sing one more song to make the path entirely clear, which leads into “And the Green Grass Grows All Around”.

The path is cleared after the song and Baby Bop and Jessica decide to take turns carrying The King’s crown. As they go down the path, they all sing “It’s a Great Day”. After the song, The Sign comes along to tell them that they’re close to the castle. Upon arriving at the castle, they notice The Guard is sleeping. With the audience’s help, they wake up the guard. When the guard wakes up, Barney asks if he could open the door. The Guard tells them that the door is locked and a special song will need to be sung in order to have it opened. They figure out that the song to sing is “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and after the song, the door opens. Due to the door opening slowly, it leads into intermission which ends act 1.

### Act 2

After intermission, Andy, Jessica, Penny and Andy ride horses from the audience onto the stage. When arriving on stage, they decide to put the horses back in the stables.

As the second act opens, The curtains open to see the dinosaurs inside the castle with many flags around, leading into the song “Wave the Flags” with Barney encouraging the audience to wave their flags. After the song, everyone decides to look for the king. Penny suggests that he might be hiding in a painting she found. She hides in one herself, making the others want to join in, leading into “Musical Castle Nursery Rhyme Medley”. After the medley, they conclude that he’s not inside any of the paintings but soon wonder if he might be in a suit of armor they see. The suits of armor soon move and dance, leading into "Knights' Dance" with BJ joining in the dance.

After the song, The Sign tells everyone that The King is at the top of the castle. As they decide to go see The King, Jessica gives Baby Bop The King’s crown to carry. Before leaving to see The King, BJ suggests that they dress up in fancy clothes. They then play dress up with The King’s clothes. While dressing up, they sing the “Musical Castle Costumes Medley” with the dinosaurs singing “I Put a Smile On” afterwards. After the songs, they go and see The King and return his crown to him. Because The King has his crown, a celebration begins and everyone sings “Musical Castle Celebration Medley”. Given that The King is no longer sad, he declares that it’s a great day, leading into a reprise of “It’s a Great Day”. After the song, The King thanks everyone for bringing his crown back, leading into the song “I Love You”. Everyone waves goodbye after the song, closing the show with Barney blowing a kiss to the audience.

## Cast

* Original
* Second Run

### Video

The original cast of *Barney's Musical Castle* performed from September 15, 1999 to April 22, 2000. This was also the cast that performed on the home video release.

#### Dinosaurs

* Barney (Voice: Bob West, Costume: Carey Stinson / Antwaun Steele)
* Baby Bop (Voice: Julie Johnson, Costume: Jennifer Gibel / Jill Nelson)
* BJ (Voice: Patty Wirtz, Costume: Kyle Nelson / Charles L. Shaw)

#### Children

* Andy (Fernando Moguel)
* Penny (Hayley Greenbauer)
* Jessica (Talia Davis)
* Justin (Wesley Farnsworth)

#### Other

* The Sign (David Voss)
* The King (Derrick J. Graves)
* The Guard (Derrick J. Graves)

#### Dancers

* Jay Benson, DeWayne Hambrick, Camille Pritchett and David Voss

The following cast of *Barney's Big Surprise* performed from September 8, 2000 to April 25, 2001.

#### Dinosaurs

* Barney (Voice: Bob West, Costume: Carey Stinson / Antwaun Steele)
* Baby Bop (Voice: Julie Johnson, Costume: Jennifer Gibel / Kevin McKenna)
* BJ (Voice: Patty Wirtz, Costume: Kyle Nelson / Charles L. Shaw)

#### Children

* Andy (Fernando Moguel)
* Penny (Megan Stanke)
* Jessica (Talia Davis)
* Justin (Wesley Farnsworth)

#### Other

* The Sign (David Voss)
* The King (Derrick J. Graves)
* The Guard (Derrick J. Graves)

#### Dancers

* Jay Benson, DeWayne Hambrick, Camille Pritchett and David Voss

## Songs

### Act 1

1. "Barney Theme Song"
2. "Musical Castle Sing Along Medley ("Everyone is Special", "If All the Raindrops", and "Mr. Knickerbocker")"
3. "Castles So High"
4. "What Makes a Flower So Pretty?"
5. "Look at Me, I'm Three"
6. "You Can Count on Me"
7. "Here in the Forest"
8. "And the Green Grass Grows All Around"
9. "It's a Great Day"
10. "If You're Happy and You Know It"\*\*\*

### Act 2

11. "Castles So High" (Reprise)
12. "Wave the Flags"
13. Musical Castle Nursery Rhyme Medley ("Little Bo Peep", "Hickory Dickory Dock", "Pat-A-Cake", "Mary Had a Little Lamb", "Jack and Jill", and "This Little Piggy")
14. "Knights' Dance"
15. "Musical Castle Costumes Medley ("The Noble Duke of York", "A Silly Hat", and "Boom, Boom, Ain't It Great to Be Crazy?")"
16. "I Put a Smile On"
17. "I'm the King"
18. Musical Castle Celebration Medley ("Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-Dee-Ay", "When I'm Old Enough to Join the Band", and "Wave the Flags (Reprise)")
19. "It's a Great Day" (Reprise)
20. "I Love You"

## Production

### Writing

The show's original vision was from longtime Barney writer Stephen White. The show was turned over to multiple writers in order to put the script together.

## Music and Soundtrack

Main Article: *Barney's Musical Castle (soundtrack)*

*Barney's Musical Castle* is a live album with songs from the stage show of the same name. The album was released by NEXT International in South Africa. This is the first Barney album to have a soundtrack based on a US live tour released outside the US.

*Main Article: El Castillo Musical de Barney*

*El Castillo Musical de Barney* a live Spanish album with songs from Barney's Musical Castle. The album was released in 2002 by HIT Entertainment. The soundtrack was soon re-released by Lionsgates and HIT Entertainment on September 13, 2011.

## Adaptation

### Book

*Main Article: Barney's Musical Castle (book)*

*Barney's Musical Castle* is a book that was released by Scholastic, Inc in 2001 based off the tour of the same name. It was written by Guy Davis and photographed by Dennis Full.

## Release

#### Home media

On March 6, 2001 was released on VHS. It was later re-released on VHS in March 9, 2004.

## Tour Dates

The original North American tour of *Barney's Musical Castle* ran from September 1999 through April 2001 in four legs, separated by Winter and Summer holidays. In select cities throughout this tour, The Wiggles performed as the intermission act. Bob the Builder performed as the intermission act of the Chilean and Mexican tour.

### Middle East (2009-2010)

 ABU DHABI, UAE
 AR-RAYYAN, QA

## Trivia

* During the second verse of "I Love You", Penny signs out the words.
* The original intro to the show had a Barney plush doll sitting in a sandbox which is then pulled back to reveal a bigger castle.
* This video is shown in the movie, *Jurassic Park III*, starring Trevor Morgan who plays Cody in *Barney's Great Adventure*.
* The first act of *Barney's Greatest Hits - Live On Stage* is comprised of songs from this tour.
* It is rumored that the footage from the tour commercial was filmed at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas in September 1999, not to mention that it was the first location where the show was performed at.
* Although David Voss portrayed the role of the sign from the tour, he was only credited as a dancer during the end credits.
	+ In addition, DeWayne Hambrick who originally portrayed the role of Old King Cole in the previous stage show was also credited as one.
* During the end credits, Antwaun Steele's name was misspelled as Antwaun Steel.
* The international stage show *Barney's Space Adventures* includes a reference based on this video.

### Birthdays

* This video was released on Courtney Cook Chavera's sixteenth birthday.
* The original performance of this live show aired on Tomie dePaola's sixty-fifth birthday.

### Occurrences

* This live show/video marked:
	+ The another time where BJ whistles to let the audience know of his arrival.

### Release

* In the Spanish version, additional shots were used that were not in the original VHS release.
* When the video was re-released in 2006, the text was changed and has the HIT Entertainment logo, the DVD Video logo and the 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment logo on the black tape with ink label. Unlike the 2006 re-release of *It's Time For Counting* which contained different previews by having the exact same colored tape and ink label this release had, this tape still used its original tape master sourced from the 2001 release.

### The Wiggles

* The Wiggles and Captain Feathersword performed as the intermission act of the North American tour since this was to promote the Australian musical group being introduced to an American audience around that time.
	+ Fernando Moguel (who portrayed Andy in the tour) later worked for The Wiggles and made appearances on their albums, videos, and at their American concerts. Fernando Moguel also portrayed as the Yellow Wiggle in the Latin American co-production and was later a Wiggly Dancer, he also portrayed Carlos in The Kingdom of Paramithi which was produced by The Wiggles.
* When this stage show was released on home video in the US, it included the footage from The Wiggles' Big Show tour (The Wiggles' first ever arena tour filmed in November 1997) after the feature, which was recycled from the October 1995 re-recorded version of "*Wiggle Time!*", a remake of The Wiggles' first ever video from 1995.
* The Wiggles used the confetti from this tour in the song Marie's Wedding for their video called "*Hoop-Dee-Doo it's a Wiggly Party*".

## References

1. ↑ Barneyonline.com
2. ↑ New kids theatrical players take the stage
3. ↑ St. Louis native helps Barney improve his dance moves
4. ↑ Purple Reign - Barney and friends celebrate his birthday with a kids' rock concert
5. ↑ 2000 Barneys Musical Castle Program Guide
6. ↑ The Roadie