The catchphrase for the massively popular Nickelodeon TV animated children’s show “PAW Patrol” is “no job is too big, no pup too small.”
And two actors with Lehigh Valley roots have discovered that this also applies to those who portray the show’s human and canine characters in the traveling stage version of the show, Paw Patrol Live!, which comes to Allentown’s PPL Center for five performances Saturday and Sunday.
Matt Gurniak, a Fogelsville native who portrays Ryder, the (human) boy leader of the PAW Patrol, and Merrie Drees, an Ohio native whose aunts live in the Lehigh Valley and who plays Skye, the aviator cockapoo who takes flight for the doggy do-gooders, say the roles are more demanding than almost any other they’ve had.
The two will perform in a cast of the seven pups who make up the PAW Patrol squad and four human roles in the show, “PAW Patrol Live! Race to the Rescue.” The story follows the heroic canines on the day of the Great Adventure Bay Race between Adventure Bay’s Mayor Goodway and Foggy Bottom’s Mayor Humdinger.
In the story, Mayor Goodway is nowhere to be found, so Ryder summons PAW Patrol members Marshall, Chase, Skye, Rubble, Rocky, Zuma and Everest to rescue the mayor and run the race in her place.
“It’s full-body puppetry, so it is physically demanding,” Drees says in a phone call from a stop on the tour in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In the show, she manipulates, and voices, a human-sized dog puppet.
“So it is a lot harder than just an average job. … [But] It’s totally worth it at the end of the day to see the kids’ faces.”
Gurniak has it easier — he retains his human form in the show. But his role as the 10-year-old Ryder has its own challenges, he says in a separate phone call.
“It’s definitely different, because I have to focus more on the pup than on the actor” playing it, he says. “So it took a little adjustment. It helps with ‘creating the world’ and the realistic-ness of the actual pups. … And I’m actually not a 10-year-old boy,” the 25-year-old says with a laugh.
Getting the portrayals right is key to the show, which recreates the animated world of the series — which consistently has ranked as the highest-rated preschool TV program in the United States since it premiered on Nickelodeon in 2013.
The show, a creation of Canadian television, in 2014 had its theme song nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Song – Main Title.
“They play it on Nickelodeon like every hour of the day,” says Drees, a recent graduate of Kent State University’s musical theater program, for whom the role is her first post-grad work. She said she first became aware of the show while working as a nanny, and noticed how ubiquitous it was in stores — “on toothpaste, and on Gummies and on stuff like that.”
Actress Merrie Drees, who plays Skye in Paw Patrol Live! (Photos courtest VStar Entertainment)
Drees says her sister played Skye in another touring company of Paw Patrol, “The Great Pirate Adventure,” which stopped at PPL Center in 2018. “So I knew about the company through her” she says.
She says she won the role through an online video audition and turned down other roles to accept PAW Patrol. She’s toured with the show since June.
“This was just an offer I felt like I couldn’t refuse,” she says. “I thought, ‘It’s a perfect opportunity to see the country. I did some research in it, obviously, when I was called back — watching some of the episodes. It’s a really, really cute show.”
Drees is from Cincinnati, but has aunts who live in Breinigsville and Reading, and she says she grew up visiting them. “I would stay at her house and we would take trips into the city sometimes. I’ve been to the Liberty Bell [Shrine], Coca-Cola Park. Done the whole thing,” she says with a laugh.
Matt Gurniak of Fogelsville to perform in Paw Patro9l Live at Allentown’s PPL Center (Contributed photo)
Gurniak says he got his role as Ryder in a more-traditional way. He did a universal audition for scouts at a professional theater conference and got a callback for the part of Ryder. He’s been with the show since January.
He says he got the bug for acting in an eighth-grade play at St. Joseph the Worker School in Orefield — “That’s where I really got into it” — and while at Allentown Central Catholic High School, he got a Freddy Award nomination for his work in “Beauty and the Beast” in 2011. Then as a senior, he won the Freddy for Best Lead Actor for playing The Cat in the Hat in “Suessical.”
That took him to the National High School Musical Theater Awards, The Jimmy Awards, where he won a Most Improved Actor Award and appeared in the 2012 PBS documentary series “Broadway or Bust.”
He graduated from James Madison University with degrees in both theater and chemistry, and in 2017 returned to Broadway for a Jimmy Awards reunion, where he performed alongside the cast of “The Lion King” and other big-name Broadway actors.
He had roles in “Footloose” and “Grease” at Pines Dinner Theater in Allentown, and “A Chorus Line” at Bucks County Center for the Performing Arts.
Being on the road with PAW Patrol meant he missed the Freddy Awards for the first time this year; in previous years, he returned to help backstage.
But like Drees, Gurniak says the experience of the “PAW Patrol” tour makes it worthwhile.
“When you first some out on stage, you’re greeted with just a wall of sound — the kids are so excited, especially when you start introducing each pup,” Gurniak says. “So it’s really great to be able to see their faces light up and hear them screaming for the pups.”
Drees agrees. “That’s the reaction you get: It’s ‘Oh my goodness, this is my favorite thing brought to life!” she says.
“We all come out at the beginning, and we do these little intros where each of us comes and we’re the only ones on stage and we do this little song, and we introduce ourselves to the audience. And every single show, you can’t even hear us sing. These kids are screaming so loud — they’re so excited, and they all have their shirts on and they all have their plush toys that they brought with them.
“And that’s the best part of the job — because you put in all this work and you get to truly reach so many kids. And it really is like making their dreams come true. It’s so fulfilling.”
Gurniak says he also gets to interact with the kids one on one during the show’s VIP experience — which for an extra cost gives children “meet and greet” experiences with the show’s characters.
“They’ll come in, they’ll meet Ryder, me, and then also two of the pups,” he says. “You get to talk with the kids about their favorite pup and how they like the show and stuff like that.”
“I kind of describe it to people as, when you’re little and you got to see The Wiggles Live, or Sesame Street Live, you thought those people on that stage were the characters. To them, I am Skye.”
Gurniak says he relates to his character’s “love of pups and dogs, definitely,” he says with a laughs. “And his sense for adventure.”
Drees says, “I love playing Skye because she was, for a long time, the only girl pup. … Now they’re integrating more female characters in the mix. I feel that’s important for young girls to see it’s not just boy dogs who can go save the day. Girls can, too.
“And her whole kind of motto is that she’s the fearless one, and she’ll do the missions that some of even the boy pups don’t want to do. So I always thought that was cool — that she can get down and dirty and play just as hard as all the other dogs.
“And I love that she’s a pilot. I think it’s fun that she gets to wear the cute little hat. She’s a cute dog, but she is determined to always help. So I thing that’s a good message to send to kids, for sure.”
The show includes two acts and an intermission, with up-tempo music and classic theatrical scenery, along with a high-tech video wall to create an authentic PAW Patrol environment, including locations from the TV series. Interactive video lets the audience participate via interviews, solve clues with the Pups, follow Mayor Goodway and more.
“PAW Patrol Live: Race to the Rescue” will be on the road until June 2020.
PAW PATROL LIVE! RACE TO THE RESCUE
What: Live-action stage show of the popular Emmy Award-nominated Nickelodeon TV children’s cartoon
When: 10 a.m., 2 and 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21; 11 a.m., 3 p.m. Sept. 22
Where: PPL Center, 701 Hamilton St., Allentown
Tickets: $19-$99 VIP with premium seating, commemorative lanyard and after-show meet-and-greet with walk-around characters.