Sometimes I wish all theaters had the same absolute authority to summon and assemble audiences that some children’s theaters have.
School buses snake up to the Arvada Center door, depositing multitudinous urchins who are herded into place in a way that might make you think they’ve been assigned to a juvie work detail. For the anxious final moments before the performance begins, teachers stand guard over these pips like prison-yard officers spying for the slightest act of improper behavior. If one squirms or kicks, you sense the offender may soon be making a hostage video for his parents.
This, for all the world, feels compulsory. But as the lights go down, these 500 whippersnappers shriek like they’re at a rock concert. Throughout the Arvada Center’s wonderful presentation of “A Year With Frog & Toad,” they lean forward in rapt attention, unabashed in their laughter and generous with their applause. Most seem not only open but even eager to return.
Talk about audience development.
If only we could force reluctant adults to withstand culture in this manner — we might have a more thriving audience base.
“Frog & Toad” is the rare children’s phenomenon to break though to wider audiences, even enjoying a run on Broadway. Audiences are taken by this cheerful musical stage adaptation of Arnold Lobel’s beloved, bespectacled best buddies who wake from hibernation and enjoy a year in the swamp together. It’s set to a surprisingly sophisticated score with beautiful harmonizing that evokes 1940s swing.
Its crossover success made “F&T” a tweener — is this children’s theater or mainstage family theater like “Mary Poppins”? Truth is, it’s both. The full-length version version (staged last year by the Aurora Fox) runs nearly two hours, and at that length its simple premise runs out of gas. This condensed, 65-minute version playing mornings at the Arvada Center feels just right in terms of length and intended audience.
Nobody does children’s theater like the Arvada Center, which commits resources that are in some areas commensurate to its mainstage offerings. And why not? Many of these kids shows outdraw the adult offerings.
You’ll love the production values, and the quality of the cast and crew. It has inventive set pieces like lily pads on wheels, and an array of fun and funny costumes (both fashioned by Brian Mallgrave). What a blast it must be to be a costumer with a song like “Toad Looks Funny in a Bathing Suit”? (And he does!)
But mostly you’ll be taken with the wonderful heart, great energy and unapologetically civil tone established by directors David and Julie Payne. Their leads are Scott Rathbun, one of the best actors for children in the biz, and Jeremy Sortore, who only doubles as an accomplished French opera singer. An adorable ensemble of alternating life forms (birds, snails mice, etc.) is dotted with A-list names like Matt LaFontaine, Amanda Earls, Christianna Sullins and Daniel Langhoff.
Those names won’t mean anything to the tykes (sorry!), but they will love their work.
With the exception of a great runaway sledding scene, “F&T” isn’t so much a series of adventures as a series of life lessons and random acts of kindness. It’s one pal hearing that another has never received mail, so he writes him a letter letter (then stupidly gives it to a snail to deliver). It’s learning that just because a friend wants to be alone, that doesn’t mean he’s sad — here he’s pausing to appreciate the gifts of his life. It’s one friend doing a secret good deed for the other, content that the friend will never know who did it.
It’s an admittedly odd world Lobel has created here — two interspecies buddies who dream of each other when asleep and whose lives revolve wholly around one other when awake, and in the complete absence of a larger family.
But it’s infused with a great spirit, a wonderful heart and, at times, a pretty good beat.
“A Year with Frog & Toad”
Children’s musical. Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd. Through May 2. 10 a.m. and noon most Tuesdays-Fridays; 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. some Saturdays (call to confirm). 65 minutes. $8-$9. 720-898-7200 or . Note: We don’t assign star ratings to children’s shows. Recommended for all ages.
