A MITZVAH FOR DAISY

Finally, after two years of pandemic delays, the wonderful musical about my pets, A MITZVAH FOR DAISY, was staged in May 2022. Don Butler wrote a heartfelt, poignant, and wise musical, based, as you can tell, on my children’s books, which were of course inspired by my actual pets, Mitzvah the Dog and Daisy the Cat. The audience, made up of younger elementary school children and their teachers, responded with laughter and joy as they saw the story of Mitzvah and Daisy changing from frenemies to best friends.

Don brilliantly captured, in both staging and in song, such moments as when Mom (aka me) found Mitzvah in a shelter; Daisy’s rascally antics; the devastation of learning that Mitzvah was going blind; how all three of us in this family learned to cope and, indeed, even thrive despite that diagnosis. Implicit in the heart-felt songs was the reality that life can throw some very real challenges at us, but we can cope with the support and love of our friends.

I saw the show every day during its run at our area’s major theater, as well as the performance staged at an elementary school near where I live. I can honestly say that I laughed and cried at each show. Laughed, because funny situations were acted so well on stage. Cried, because of the poignancy that the three members of the stage family …

You know how musicals get songs in your head and they play on a loop? Don’s music was like that for me. Mitzvah singing, “Boy, life is hard without a pedigree / when you’re a mutt, no one can see you . . . “. Daisy getting the kids moving with, “Cheer up! Don’t let your whiskers down / No sad / allowed here in Daisy town . . . “ And the rousing finale, when the family of three sing that love isn’t just a feeling, but something you do.

The teachers reported back that their students loved the show, and more than one teacher said that the students wanted to play “Mitzvah and Daisy” after the show.

The show and the audience reactions were worth the two-year wait!