A Year With Frog And Toad

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

The one greets Spring with a backyard-wide smile and wide dancing eyes. The other greets Spring under the covers with a loud unnerving “BLEH.”

Amanda Earls, Andrew Caldwell, Anita Boland, Michael Gold, and Scott McClean in A Year With Frog And Toad at the Aurora Fox.

The one greets Spring with a joyful shout “It’s April!” The other, following a string of BLEHS, wants not to be disturbed until May. With a Calendar on the wall, time can easily be laid to rest on the floor. Surprised the days flew by so quickly; the grouchy worrywart proclaims the extra long sleep did him a world of good.

Ah, it’s the wonderful charming warm-hearted successful Broadway musical brought to delightful life at the Aurora Fox directed and choreographed by the magical Nick Sugar.

Michael Gold provides the laughing eyes and happy demeanor of Frog while Scott McLean bows to the initial BLEH’S and worry-wrought Toad.

Based on the enchanting books by Arnold Lobel, Robert Reale’s music and Willie Reale’s lyrics took the story a step further bringing the backyard creatures to serendipitous animation. Celebrating friendship through up’s and down’s, disappointments and hopes, a myriad of emotions, the friendship between Frog and Toad toughens. Diversity signals their differences. In spite of it all, they remain the best of friends. In a world where diversity builds walls, this enchanting musical builds bridges. They don’t have to agree on everything. They can become annoyed with each other, express disappointed, blame, forgive, and admit their foibles remaining best friends sharing surprising and day-to-day adventures. In their winter long hybernation they appear in each other’s dreams re-living adventures and misadventures.

Aided and abetted by The Birds: Anita Boland, Andrew Caldwell and Amanda Earls, the arrival of spring is announced. With harmonizing voices, animated skills, artistic imagination these three are a wonderful asset to the score, humor, and warmth encircling Frog and Toad.

Dressed in birthday cake celebratory costumes flapping wings and sharp twisted bird like neck moves, the three also play a variety of other animals, a mouse, lizard, turtle, moles, and an ever so amusing snail assisted by Caldwell.

Music of the 1940s jazzes the clever lyrics for “Spring,” “Seeds,” “The Letter,” “Getta Load of Toad,” “Cookies,” “The Kite,” “Leaves,” “He’ll Never Know,” “I’m Coming Out of My Shell,” “Merry Almost Christmas,” and “ A Year With Frog and Toad.”

This simple profound musical even touched the hearts of Broadway with Tony nominations for Best Original Score, Best Book of a Musical and Best Musical.

Chances are this musical won’t necessarily turn the world upside down, cure any major social ills, solve political conundrums, end the war, or cure cancer. It’s power, however, stands on strong legs that can dance their way into an aura of celebration for friendship and diversity, which, after all, is a very big thing.

No complex issues plague the story. No brain twanging mysteries crawl through the 90-minute escapade. Only Snail commissioned by Frog to deliver a letter takes his hysterical time crossing the stage. He may be slow, but Caldwell with his large melodious voice endears him to the audience.

No social inequities find exploration throughout the simple conversational singing Frog and Toad egged on by the myriad of animals.

Toes have a difficult time to keep from tapping to the 1940s music. Little ones are mesmerized by what they see and hear, and by the looks on the faces of the older ones following Saturday night’s performance, they were mesmerized as well.

Frog and Toad run into relatively simple issues. Will the seeds grow? How many gruff demands does Toad have to go through to get the seeds to grow? Will the kite fly? Frog is convinced it will. Toad on the other hand is convinced it won’t, while the Birds twitter with jabbing delight at Toad’s unruly efforts.

How is Toad suppose to know how long to keep the cookies in the oven when his clock is broken? What’s a toad to do when he looks funny in a bathing suit? Scared, as he is to ride the sled down the snowy hill how can Toad refuse?

What could Frog possibly give Toad for Christmas? What kind of anxiety grips Toad when Frog arrives late? How come Toad’s gift to Frog hasn’t arrived?

What is explored is the gentleness of friendship, the enchantment of diversity, the value of loyal friendship. No matter what the age the celebration of friendship slides in as a welcomed reminder.

Behind the tall plants and flowers in silhouette the combo with Traci Kern on the piano, Mary Stribling on the bass and Mark Emmons on the drums fills the air with the grand memorable music.

While the talented cast embodies the spirit and soul of the animals, so Brian Malgrave dresses them in appealing costumes identifying the animals. Tina Anderson’s set design offers a feast for the eyes as the characters warm the room with smiles and laughter. Set pieces easily turn themselves inside out, with a little help from backstage crew to glimpse inside and outside views.

A Year With Frog And Toad envelops the Aurora Fox in a fistful of fresh air for families of all shapes and sizes, young, old, cynical, scrutinizing, intellectual, organized, disorganized, wealthy, and not so wealthy. After the show of magical experiences the not-so can see just how wealthy they really are. The art of friendship remains a commodity no amount of money can buy. Except for the fact this play is wonderfully written, delightfully executed by highly endowed artists, wonderfully costumed for the actors and the stage, brightly lit by lighting designer Jen Orf, the main reason to see this play is simply for its celebration of friendship in all colors of diversity, which is after all a very big thing. When all is said and done, it will be difficult to look at backyard creatures in the same pesky light.

Experiment! Take someone you don’t think you get along with: who BLEH’S too loudly, who thinks seeds don’t grow fast enough, who thinks the kite will never fly, who complains because their clock is broken forgetting they were the one who broke the clock in the first place, who is fearful riding down the sled with you, or who thinks they look funny in a bathing suit. Ah, but knows how to make delectable chocolate chip cookies, even though they don’t know when to take them out of the oven.

On the other hand, take someone you love and think about those who fit into the above categories.

Just go. Call now for reservations to avoid the risk of having to say BLEH too loudly when the final curtain falls and it is too late.