Howling good time: 'Dog Man' brings beloved policeman with a canine head to Popejoy

The script for Brandon James Butorovich goes something like “Bark, bark bark, bark” in “Dog Man: The Musical.”

The family production, which comes to Popejoy Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 10, portrays the life of Dog Man, an animated character who has the head of a dog on the body of a policeman, and loves to fight crime and chew furniture. The character created by Dav Pilkey only has the ability to bark to communicate.

Howling good time: 'Dog Man' brings beloved policeman with a canine head to Popejoy

20241206-venue-v08dogman

20241206-venue-v08dogman

20241206-venue-v08dogman

20241206-venue-v08dogman

20241206-venue-v08dogman

20241206-venue-v08dogman

20241206-venue-v08dogman

20241206-venue-v08dogman

Butorovich was a little too old for the “Dog Man” book series when it came out in the mid-2010s. However, he was familiar with “Dog Man” and began doing his research when he was called to audition for the musical. He discovered Pilkey was also the creator of “Captain Underpants,” which he did read as a child.

“You learn that Dog Man is the head of a dog, body of a cop, and that the big thing is Dog Man doesn’t speak words,” he explained. “He only barks because he has the head of a dog. So, what I did going into the audition, I was given slides to perform. It wasn’t like a script. I was given scenarios of how would Dog Man act in this scenario? So what I did was, I kind of just watched my dog and mimicked my dog and his behavior and just started to get that into my body, but then also finding ways where he still has the body of a man.”

Butorovich thought of how a dog would use a human body.

“Maybe I would twitch my leg or something like that, or wiggle my behind, you know, fun ways to just act like a dog and then try to mimic the way my dog sounds barking,” he explained. “It really was kind of a crazy experience. I’ve never done something like that before as an actor because typically you have a script, you have lines to recite, whereas with Dog Man you don’t, so you’re kind of just doing different vocalizations of barking and stuff. So even talking about it, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s so much.’”

In the production, Dog Man does his best to save the city from Flippy the cyborg fish and his army of Beasty Buildings. He also tries to catch Petey, the world’s most evilest cat who has cloned himself to seek revenge on Dog Man.

“They are comic books, so our show is very energetic,” Butorovich said. “It’s very colorful. It’s very fast-paced, because the book series is like that, too. It’s really fun on stage. Bringing these characters to life for these young audience members is awesome, because with Dog Man specifically, this character is a hero to a lot of these kids. So being the actor that gets to portray this character on stage is really cool. I really value that.”

Enter George and Harold.

“George and Harold write the comic books,” Butorovich said. “George and Harold are also writing the musical, as we’re telling the musical. So it’s really cool for sure.”

Mundo Ballejos plays the character, Harold.

“I read Dav Pilkey’s books, who originally wrote the ‘Captain Underpants’ series, and I was obsessed with that as a kid,” he said. “It was really easy to find myself in the world of George and Harold, creating their own narratives and whatnot. And a lot of the preparation that I did specifically for ‘Dog Man’ was actually buying the books that the musical is based off of, which is the first and the third books. And really honing in on those. I can confidently say that some of the script is straight out of the book, like the words that are said by the characters, what’s happening in the books, it’s a copy and paste on stage version of that.”

Ballejos became somewhat of a historian to prepare for the role of Harold and other characters in the production.

“I really try to gather, almost like a sponge, as much information as I possibly can about these people, so that when I’m on my feet, figuring out how to walk as them, or how to talk as them, I have the backup of the information ready to go that informs my choices. Especially when I’m playing Harold. He’s a 10-year-old boy. I really try to find a lot of my physicality being free flowing, I try to make myself sound like a 10-year-old, and I also try to lose myself into being a child, because a lot of the times, as an adult, you’re really conscious of what’s happening on stage and the things around you, but a kid wouldn’t really care as much. I try to really let go and live blissfully in the imaginary circumstances.”

Ballejos is familiar with performing in front of young audiences.

“I didn’t realize that I had a passion for it until I was actually doing it,” he explained. “I identify as a Mexican and Native American individual, and I feel like there’s not enough of that representation on stage, but especially for kids. I feel like it’s really upon me as somebody who identifies that way, to put myself out there and show the young people of the generations coming up that you can do what I’m doing, and it’d be worth it, and it’d be exciting and fulfilling, and brown and Black bodies deserve to be on stage.

“I think for me personally, that’s what drew me to wanting to tour across the country and also into Canada, because I think representation matters in places where representation isn’t shown enough.”