Quotable Quotes: An Opening with Frog and Toad

Who: A Year with Frog and Toad stars Mark Linn-Baker, Jay Goede, Danielle Ferland, Frank Vlastnik, Jennifer Gambatese as well as director David Petrarca and designer Adrianne Lobel (whose father wrote the original Frog and Toad books).

What: Opening night celebration

Where: Maxie's on Seventh Avenue

When: Sunday, April 13, 2003, 4:30pm

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"It's a family show. It's been put together by a lot of family members with other close friends and their family. My wife has really sort of produced this and really developed the show from her father's books, the Frog and Toadseries. And then the Reale Brothers who are close friends and family have done the book and the lyrics and music." --Mark Linn-Baker

"I married him in part because I thought he was Toad." --Adrianne Lobel on husband Mark Linn-Baker

"I'll tell you what the secret is because this show has accomplished it 100%: It is making it sweet and not at all condescending. You talk to your kids like they're people. This show is so sweet without crossing that edge to syrupy. And it's simple. The books have morals but they don't smack you over the head with that and they've managed to adapt them into this beautiful piece that just speaks to people directly." --Danielle Ferland

"To hear those laughs it's like they're throwing roses at your feet. It's the most delightful thing to hear kids when this is their first Broadway experience." --Frank Vlastnik

"[The children] don't quite know if I'm the snail or the frog. But I'm very flattered to be an amphibian hero for them." --Jay Goede

"It's great to walk out on the stage and know that you're taller than a lot of people in the audience. It doesn't happen to me often." --Mark Linn-Baker

"The thing about this show is every time I do it I'm reminded of why I got into theater to begin with. There's something so pure about it. I mean as sophisticated as it is, it's the reason we wanted to be actors--not just sing and dance and ham it up--but just the fact that there are adults enjoying the show with children in the same theater and a kid will laugh at one thing and the adults will laugh the next thing." --Jay Goede

"For the kids I think the message is friendship and loyalty and putting up with some of the habits in your friends that get under your skin. When I first read the script, it felt like Waiting for Godot where it's these two guys kind of in the middle of nowhere and they don't know whether it's a dream or real." --Jennifer Gambatese

"It's the same as entertaining anybody--it's gotta be good. If it's good, people pay attention and children especially. They have less tolerance for stuff that really isn't working." --Mark Linn-Baker

"I kind of started the whole thing because I told my father the difference between frogs and toads, which gave him the idea to write these books. So I was the instigator then and the instigator now, so it's very satisfying." --Adrianne Lobel

"I think there's a sensibility both to the original books and to the show about how to relate to other people. About what it is to be somebody's friend. About what you allow for yourself and others." --Mark Linn-Baker

"I'll take 'em at any age--young fans, old fans I don't care! People really seem to respond to the snail. I've had some kids come up to me and say, 'Oh, I love the snail because he's always last!' And I've always wanted to dedicate my performance to all of the people like me who were the last one picked for softball and kickball in junior high--that it need not be a reflection of your worth as a person." --Frank Vlastnik

"It's about friendship and about being tolerant. I mean Frog and Toad are so vastly different and yet they manage to deal with each other as people and support each other." --Danielle Ferland

"Marty Pakledinaz has imagined the most fantastic costumes for us. Sometimes if I was a little lost about how I was going to play an animal I'd just put on the costume and it would be like 'Oh, that's it.'" --Frank Vlastnik

"Writing without condescension is very important. Writing so that both the child and the adult are amused. Writing so that when you read out loud it sounds good. In a way my father was an actor because he would sit in his chair and write but then read it out loud because it was very important how it sounded--it was like writing a song." --Adrianne Lobel

"I really wanted to create something that was intergenerational. When I was a kid I could watch The Honeymooners with my grandma and my parents and you had three generations sitting there and enjoying the same thing and everybody got something different out of it. So when we made this show we consciously kept that at the forefront of what we were doing, which was, 'Can I keep a three year old occupied? Can I keep someone who's out on a date occupied? Can I keep a grandparent occupied?' So we tried to work the show so that it worked on those different levels all the way through. The joy is watching the little kids watch the show. That's worth the price of admission to me." --David Petrarca

"You know the thing is you never get sick of it. It was so interesting because we took the show from Minneapolis and the children are so different. The New York kids are much more vocal and aggressive. They come up to you and they want to know everything, and they ask you questions. They're so fascinating to me. They don't lie and they're so funny. I love it." --Danielle Ferland

"They talk back all the time. When Mark says, 'I don't know what to bring him,' they all yell, 'Lunch!' It's like The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the under six set." --David Petrarca

"It's a really wonderful dynamic for an audience because they start giggling at the very top and at first the adults laugh because the kids are laughing, and then they start laughing themselves so it goes on this roll and by the middle of the second act the adults are just having a blast whether there are children or not." --Adrianne Lobel

"It's this really soul-satisfying experience. There's nothing like a four-year-old belly laugh." --Jennifer Gambatese

Snagged from:
Broadway.com