Great news for Muppets fans in New Zealand! Something called The Jim Henson Retrospectacle is coming to Wellington in April, and it’s gonna be huge.
The entire festival will last 21 days, and it sounds like a combination of some of the most memorable live Muppet events that have happened in the US in the past decade or so. Seriously, every Kiwi Muppet fan is going to want to be there. It’s a production of the Square Eyes Film Foundation and the Jim Henson Legacy, and you can read all about it here on the Stuff website, but here are the highlights:
- A series of “behind-the-scenes panels, workshops and masterclasses by Henson alumni,” including Bonnie Erickson and Dave Goelz.
- Screenings of “rare footage from Henson archives, experimental short films, commercials, classic feature films, and a New Zealand premiere.” (A PREMIERE? What could that be?!)
- Two performances, on April 27 and 28, of a live tribute concert, featuring Bret McKenzie, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and Muppet characters from Disney’s Muppets, Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock. Kind of like that Carnegie Hall concert a few years back that we were certain we would never see the likes of again as long as we lived.
The Stuff article also notes that the event has been in the works since 2009(!).  Tickets go on sale on Thursday, February 8, 2018, at 10:00 AM through Ticketmaster. Prices range from $49 to $109. Presumably those are New Zealand dollars.
Click here to book a trip to Wellington (Not really. We are not an airline) on the Tough Pigs forum!
by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com
