Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin is at the Playhouse Theatre, London, 6 December to 12 January; 0870 060 6631.
The first time I saw Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin on stage it starred a West Highland white called Chester, playing Snowy. The dog’s is a walk-on part only; he’s rapidly substituted for a talking actor with a shock of white hair. But talk about canine ego-trips! He belonged to the show’s musical director, who told me that Chester soon started to ‘autograph’ the scenery every night before making a stage-door appearance where kids would queue up to stroke him. Chester lapped it up. He was not, it is true, a fox terrier as per the Tintin books, but then again no fox terrier I’ve ever met is all white like Snowy.
Tintin the stage show is the best thing that’s happened to star-struck dogs in ages. It’s a real regret that animals so seldom get parts in the theatre. Recently in London a pair of Afghans were sacked (budget cuts) before they had made a single appearance in the play Once in a Lifetime. And when did you last see a real Shetland pony in a panto? The National Theatre’s brilliant new show, War Horse, doesn’t have a real horse in the starring role, it has a giant horsey puppet. Animal performers have become the victims of legislation designed to protect them. Thanks to the revised Animal Welfare Act, even a rat on stage would have a handler in attendance. These days a dog plus handler costs upward of £1,500 a week — which is why you never see 101 Dalmatians live.
Out on tour, Snowy has been played by many different dogs auditioned in a nationwide competition they are calling Bone Idol.
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