Uncutesy Shows: One Mom's Quest
By ROBIN POGREBIN

LET'S face it, the true test of whether diversions intended for children are any good is whether we adults are diverted also.

That's why I recently bought six copies of Jules Feiffer's "I Lost My Bear" to give as presents — because the book leaves me in stitches every time I read it to my children, ages 4 and 6.

It's why I let my kids watch "The Aristocats" on video as often as they like — because I, too, enjoy jamming to "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat."

It's why I buy fruit leathers in bulk — because I snack on them myself.

And it's why I feel so grateful for "A Year With Frog and Toad."

Somehow, the new Broadway children's musical, which opened last Sunday at the Cort Theater, manages to avoid the typical traps of children's entertainment: a cloyingly animated or condescending tone; production values that are over the top or cheesy; spectacle intended to compensate for a lack of imagination.

The show features several stories from the four "Frog and Toad" books by the author and illustrator Arnold Lobel and captures the original tone, which is quaint but not cutesy. As in the song "Seeds," in which Toad impatiently yells at his plants to grow and then tries to coax them out of the ground by playing the tuba and doing an interpretive dance.

I was one of the parents lucky enough to see "Frog and Toad" at the New Victory Theater on West 42nd Street, where it had a brief run last December, after being developed at New York Stage and Film at Vassar College and first produced at the Children's Theater Company in Minneapolis. How frustrating, I thought at the time, that it wasn't going to have a future life.

How impressed I was to hear that some producers had the good sense to gamble on bringing it to Broadway at a cost of $2.9 million, even though commercial children's theater is practically unheard of these days. The credit for making that happen largely goes to Bob Boyett, a former Hollywood producer who has turned his attentions to Broadway, and the Shubert Organization, which offered the show a theater at a time when stages are hard to come by.

Of course, the tradeoff in coming to Broadway is Broadway prices. Most orchestra seats for "Frog and Toad" are $80 and some are $90, although tickets for the back of the balcony go for $25.

But at least you see what you pay for. Mr. Boyett's high standards for "Frog and Toad" are apparent in the production values: pristine sets, handsome costumes, a bang-up nine-piece band. "We wanted adults to walk out thinking, `I had a good time, too,' " Mr. Boyett said.

As a New Yorker, I grew up on quality culture, from the Bil Baird Marionettes in the Village, now unfortunately defunct, to the Paper Bag Players, still deservedly going strong with annual seasons at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. My parents also took me to Broadway shows — "Fiddler on the Roof" was my first — and to Off Broadway, like the Equity Library Theater's productions of old musicals on West 103rd Street, which sadly no longer exist.

Now a parent myself, I find the pickings are generally slim. Yes, Theaterworks/USA has come up with some good stuff. Full disclosure: I wrote lyrics for the company's musical version of "Harold and the Purple Crayon" more than a decade ago. I particularly like their recent "Ferdinand, the Bull." But their musicals are produced on a shoestring and the performances can be uneven.

There is something magical about how the Paper Bag Players have conjured whole worlds out of boxes and brown paper bags over the last 45 years. But the very modest nature of their productions makes them most appropriate for young children who need audience participation: "Which way did he go?" "That way!"

There are Broadway's current Disney offerings, "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King," which are impressive spectacles but also lengthy, not to mention expensive. And you'd better be prepared to pick up a "Lion King" mug or stuffed Simba on the way out. Then there is the shrill experience of suffering through overamplified, saccharine "Barney" or "Blues Clues" shows at Radio City Music Hall that make you want to run for cover.

"Seussical: The Musical" died on Broadway because it could not decide what it wanted to be — for children or grown-ups — and wound up overdoing its set and costumes so much that you could no longer locate the sweet, tuneful show inside the bells and whistles. In fact, the buzz that built around the musical before it got to Broadway was all based on a simple workshop production, in which the actors wore street clothing and sat on folding chairs.

And therein lies the secret to the success of "Frog and Toad": it moves you without trying too hard. It is simple without being threadbare and special without being glitzy — all in a compact hour and a half. The musical starts with several advantages, most significantly Lobel's award-winning "Frog and Toad" books, which chronicle the friendship and misadventures of the lead characters.

The show's creators managed to capture the rhythm and spirit of the books. This may be because Adrianne Lobel, who designed and helped create and produce the show, is the daughter of the author, who died in 1987. In fact, it was Ms. Lobel, who, at about 10 years of age, described the difference between frogs and toads to her father, which became the inspiration for the books. Toads live on land, don't swim well, are brown not green, have warts, live under rocks and don't hop much. "They are much stodgier," said Ms. Lobel, now 47.

Ms. Lobel is married to Mark Linn-Baker, who plays Toad and is a co-founder and co-director of the New York Stage and Film Company. He and Ms. Lobel have a 1-year-old daughter.

Mr. Linn-Baker is an experienced actor, as are Jay Goede, who plays Frog, and the three supporting cast members who portray a series of fish, fowl and forest creatures. Frank Vlastnik is especially memorable as "the snail with the mail," who has some of the show's wittiest lyrics, like, "I put the go in escargot."

For the show's creative talent, Ms. Lobel enlisted several of the people she has worked with throughout her career as a set designer. So we are in good hands. These are not children's theater people. They are just plain theater professionals. The director, David Petrarca, most recently worked on David Lindsay-Abaire's offbeat play "Kimberly Akimbo," about a prematurely aging teenager, at the Manhattan Theater Club. Robert Reale, the show's composer, writes music for television and is also a record producer. His brother, Willie Reale, who wrote the book and lyrics, founded the 52nd Street Project, a theater program for children, and served as its artistic director for 18 years.

"Frog and Toad" deals with timeless vulnerabilities, like being embarrassed about what you look like in a bathing suit; worrying about a friend who is late; hurtling down a snowy hill on a sled alone; being unable to resist cookies right out of the oven.

And the most essential joys of life, like getting a letter after weeks of staring into an empty mailbox:

"Dear Toad: Today when you told me that you were sad because you had never received a letter, it made me sad too. I suppose that is how it is with you and me. I am writing this letter, hoping that it will make you feel happy, knowing all along that unless you are happy I cannot be. Your friend, Frog."

Snagged from:
NYTimes.com