I don’t feel at all guilty about the pun above. They’re fun to write, puns, not to mention de rigueur in entertainment review titles. They’re scattered throughout Riot to Follow’s production of Honk! The Ugly Duckling Musical like chicken feed in a barnyard. Kids enjoy puns. They also like hummable songs about insecure farm animals. Kids like waddling and dancing, especially dancing with a cane. If you’re a kid, you don’t need this review; you’re already stoked about Honk!

But you’re not a kid, are you? Kids don’t buy theater tickets. Kids don’t read the Weekly Volcano, not even Cup Check. (The Weekly Volcano has no funny pages.) You’re an adult. Very likely, you’re a cast member in the show, someone closely related to a cast member in the show or a parent. Maybe your kids dug If You Give a Mouse a Cookie in the same space, and you’re wondering whether it’d be worth the money to take them to a show with a homely underage waterfowl for a protagonist. Well, it is. As a matter of fact, Honk! holds its own with the best of Olympia Family Theater, and that’s saying something.

The score is drowsily weighted with slow ballads. Luckily, those songs are quite fun, with clever lyrics by Anthony Drewe. I was especially fond of “Hold Your Head up High” and “Warts and All.” Considerable credit must go to Sam Cori, who served as musical director; in addition to her fine work in that capacity, she sings and acts the role of Ida, the Ugly Duckling’s sympathetic mother. She’s delightful. I found myself wondering what she could do with the role of Elphaba in Wicked. (Honk! ignores the question of how a swan egg appeared in a duck’s nest, giving credence to the disconcerting suspicion that Ida may have, let’s say, flocked a bird not of her feather.) Director Mark Alford (last year’s Bug, a much less kid-friendly affair) injects welcome passion and pep.

The humor is often aimed squarely at adults, especially the predatory efforts of a hungry cat. (Erin Leyba has obvious comic chops in the role but struggles to project; it’s tough to laugh at jokes we can’t hear.) Parents needn’t fear being held captive in a show too dumb or saccharine to entertain them. Kids will love the exuberant cast and relatable characters. I do think two hours is probably too long for preschool bladders, despite a 15-minute intermission.

Each of about a dozen cast members gets his or her opportunity to shine, often in multiple roles. Erin Dorrough is warm and sweet as a love-interest swan. (Incidentally, as if to spite the show’s theme, the cast of passionate Greeners is uniformly good-looking.) Elliot Jensen inspires giggles as a turkey with Thanksgiving anxiety. Tyler Lockwood is dynamic and lovable as Bullfrog, and Michelle Juravic and Jenna Tompkins amuse as coddled pets. Riot to Follow stages Honk! with enough razzle-dazzle to fill an expanded venue, while never compromising its defining micro-budget aesthetic. Honk! deserves the capacity houses OFT enjoys, and for many of the same reasons.

Honk! The Ugly Duckling Musical

7 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, $6.50-$12.50
The Washington Center Black Box, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia
olytix.org