MAY 3, 2024 – Among my favorite children’s books when our sons were young were the Frog and Toad stories by Arnold Lobel. I enjoyed the illustrations, the writing, and the story lines. The books experienced a revival in our home when our eight-year-old granddaughter reached reading age. They are certain to be enjoyed as much again when our eight-month-old grandson becomes a listener, then a reader.
This evening my wife and I took Illiana to a Children’s Theater Company production of the show, A Year with Frog and Toad, which opened two weeks ago surrounded by puzzling controversy: Frog—or rather Jay Goede, the actor who portrayed Frog—quit abruptly without much explanation beyond intimation about a problem with the director.
Having nothing to go on in the way of facts or even rumor, my wife and I ignored the controversy; our granddaughter knew nothing about it. All three of us, however, enjoyed the performance immensely from our seats just three rows back from the live pit ensemble. The new Frog, John-Michael Zurlein, turned out an impressive performance all the way around, never missing a beat. We laughed heartily and applauded vigorously throughout the show and delighted in everything about the production, from set design, costumes, acting, singing, dance routines, and yes, directing, whatever the controversy behind the curtain might have been.
But above all my wife and I relished our granddaughter’s regular giggles throughout the show and her shouted applause at the end. Illiana, with her imagination always in high gear, was wholly captivated by the musical, which was first produced at CTC nearly a quarter century ago before it was taken to Broadway, where it ran for 88 performances and won three Tony Awards.
Friendship—the endearing and enduring theme of the Frog and Toad stories—is so beautifully treated in the musical and so true to the books. As we laughed at the ironic naïvete of the two characters, I realized how effectively Frog and Toad disarm us from woe—the world’s and our own. If a lot of art expresses our emotions in response to the human condition, A Year with Frog and Toad releases us from such emotions and reminds us of our own greatest treasures, our own finest friends.
At least half the crowd were children, of course, and their seeing, hearing, and relating to the stories gave me hope for the future. Illiana certainly exudes the central behaviors to be learned from Frog and Toad: kindness, politeness, and thoughtfulness. Reinforcement of those values by the two amphibians can never be stressed to excess by us humans. As Illiana’s elders and grandparents, it is both our duty and our delight to ensure that such stories as Frog and Toad are told and retold in such spirited fashion as they were in this evening’s production. Yet, the telling of heart-warming tales about these two cold-blooded creatures should be as much for grown-ups as for their children and grandchildren.
Subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
© 2024 by Eric Nilsson
