Kid-Friendly Broadway Show A Year With Frog & Toad
by Jan Aaron

New at the Cort Theater, A Year With Frog and Toad is a charming musical based on the books by the late Arnold Lobel. It’s a series of episodes about best friends, Frog and Toad, enjoying all kinds of things together, planting flower seeds, going swimming, baking (and eating) cookies, sledding, and celebrating. (Valuable lessons in friendship here.) For each activity, there is a descriptive song by Willie Reale, backed by a live band. The delightful score by Robert Reale covers most popular musical styles. Grown-ups will enjoy the witty lyrics.

The gentle show, originally produced by the Children’s Theater of Minneapolis, was a hit at New York’s New Victory Theater last winter. In all respects, the sweet simple, 90-minute musical communicates with a specific new audience for Broadway — kids ages four to seven, and makes a perfect introduction to theater for this set. At this reviewer’s recent visit, tots, perched on boosters or cuddled against adults and clutching well-worn teddy bears were thoroughly into the on-stage amphibians’ antics.

The cast is terrific. Frog is tall, slender Jay Goede, (Angels in America), calm, serious, and affectionate. Mark Linn-Baker (TV’s Perfect Strangers and Broadway’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) is Toad, short, stout and a bit world-wary. He hates to be seen in a bathing suit, can’t fly a kite and doesn’t get any mail. A small, energetic supporting cast expertly plays birds, moles, and other creatures of the forest. Watching Toad get ready to sled down a hill especially delighted the preview audience.

The production designed by Adrianne Lobel (daughter of Arnold) and directed by David Petrarca, sweetly recall the late Lobel’s beloved books. Martin Pakledinaz’s costumes and Daniel Pelzig’s choreography summon up the animals without being literal, allowing room for kids to use their imaginations. For instance, Frog always wears green socks with a dapper suite and the birds wear chic feather-accented suits, jutting their necks when they walk, but do not have wings. Grownups paying for this entertainment will find their money well spent. #

($25-90; Call 212-239-6200; Groups 1-800-BROADWAY; for a Teachers Guide, go to www.frogandtoadonbroadway.com).

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