Carnival of the AnimalsBut oh! what a fabulous night he had had, When his world was turned into a zoo! After wandering off from a school field trip, a young boy falls asleep in the Natural History Museum. There he sees his classmates, teachers, and family transformed into a menagerie of animals, from wild hyenas to stately peacocks. John Lithgow's exhilarating word play, inspired by Camille Saint Sans's 1886 composition, provides a narrative arc to the piece for the first