DCT’s charming ‘Frog and Toad’ is Sondheim for kiddies — and adults

AMPHIBIAN AFFAIR: Frog (Bob Hess) and Toad (Brian Hathaway) carry on a bromance in DCT’s family musical.

It’s refreshing to go to the theater when there’s a buzz in the audience not caused by cell phones or faulty pacemakers. Such is the experience attending “A Year with Frog and Toad,” now being staged by the Dallas Children’s Theater. Want to know what young people do on a Saturday afternoon? See a matinee before juice and naptime.

And lucky for them. “Frog and Toad,” which had a brief run on Broadway in 2003, is a charmer almost from the second the tight five-actor cast croaks out the first chord of music. Based on Arnold Lobel’s colorful children’s book, it’s a mostly plotless series of life-lessons, set in a bucolic meadow.

Frog (Bob Hess) and Toad (Brian Hathaway) are best friends, emerging from hibernation and about to embark on their year’s adventures. That includes such prosaic occupations as going for a swim, baking cookies, flying kites and picnicking. (Notably missing from the itinerary: Snatching houseflies out of the air with their tongues or getting licked by curious drugged-out teens.) When winter rolls around again, it’s back to sleep. The end.

But there’s so much more going on here than a dry summary can convey. In between all their exercises, Frog, Toad and the denizens of their glen — including Snail (Darius-Anthony Robinson), Mouse (Arianna Movassagh) and Turtle (Beth Albright) — sing sprightly songs by Willie and Robert Reale with enough cleverness and internal rhyming that you might mistake them for early works of Stephen Sondheim if filtered through a vaudevillian’s music hall act. (Snail works in a lyric about “escargot,” and “Geta Loada Toad,” which mocks the amphibian’s bashful side, could be called “ribald.”)

And as with the best of Disney animation, the relationship between Frog and Toad is one of chaste romantic love. They support each other and resolve conflict by always returning to their mutual affection, gently reminding the audience that tolerance and diversity really are part of the life cycle.

The cast is resplendent with top local talent who can delight children without seeming to condescend to them. But Randel Wright’s fluid, fairy-book set is as much a character as the ones the actors portray. The spring season actually “springs” with flowers that pop out of the set; lake water is vividly evoked with sheer curtains; you will even believe a giant frog can jump rope. It’s priceless theater magic that kept the little ones thrilled for nearly two hours.

Adults, too. Trust me.

Rosewood Center for Family Arts, 5938 Skillman Road. Through July 20. Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays–Sundays at 1:30 p.m., Sundays at 4:30 p.m $14–$23. DCT.org.




This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition June 27, 2008.