A Year with Frog and Toad - 11/23/08

At last – a family-friendly musical for the holidays (scenes near the end of the show take place at Christmas time) that doesn’t shout “God bless us, every one!” in your face every three and a half minutes. ATTENTION, PARENTS: if you want to

A. Encourage your children to see/love/get involved with live theatre,

B. Encourage them to read,

C. Have an entertaining evening for kids that doesn’t leave the adults regretting that they brought their eyeballs with them to the theatre,

hustle them over to Wheaton Drama to see A Year with Frog and Toad. Like You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, this is a deceptively simple musical with incredibly complex, jazzy harmonies.

Based on Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad books, a staple of many grade-school reading curricula, this charming show (book & lyrics by Willie Reale, music by Robert Reale) is an episodic journey of friendship where the title characters deal with everyday occurrences that assume epic importance – much like childhood does.

Carla Mutone’s direction is brisk, sure and hits all the sentimental moments without lingering on them until insulin is required. Tracy Adams’ choreography is ebullient and breezy. The musical direction of Ginger Stephens Terlep guides the actors through some of the toughest harmonies this side of Sondheim.

Steve Schroeder as the gentle, serene Frog and Chris Bruzzini as the dour, worry-wart Toad make a terrific team, complementing each other completely. Schroeder’s warm, assured voice blends nicely with Bruzzini’s comedically emphasized warbling. The nearly non-stop giggling of the children in the audience said that both men hit their targets.

The remaining six cast members all play multiple animals. Lori Skubich stands out as both the Snail (belting the 11:00 number, I’m Coming Out of My Shell) who literally carries snail mail and as the Young Frog in Frog’s scary Halloween story. Stuart Vance, Amy Royle, Geri Larson, Margo Raube and Carrie Pyykkonen all do stellar work in their many roles as birds, mice, squirrels and moles. There is some very fine ensemble work going on here.

Standout songs include the aforementioned Shell number, He’ll Never Know (a soft shoe routine for raking leaves), Shivers (an operatic Halloween story), Merry Almost Christmas (a carol with beautiful harmonies) and the wonderful Getta Loada Toad (a Dixieland ode to both making a mountain out of your own molehill and the wonders of childhood cruelty).

The set design is beautifully done and the set crew does a great job with the numerous scene changes.

The only real complaint would be the recorded music score, on two counts. First, it’s obviously hard for the singers to keep up with some of the tempos and there is no way for the conductor to adjust to the singers – because there is no conductor. Second, don’t charge me a higher admission fee for a musical than for a straight show and then skimp on the live musicians. That’s just rude. And cheap.

Lastly, given the state of the economy, Wheaton Drama might think about cutting back on the rather high ticket prices. There were enough empty seats for a great family-friendly show to say loudly and clearly that it costs too much to come in.

However, if you think the price is doable and you’d like to take your family to a great seasonal show that you haven’t already seen in seventeen different variations, you couldn’t do better than to see A Year with Frog and Toad at Wheaton Drama. It’s a wonderful family show and it’s done very well by Bruzzini, Schroeder and company.

A Year with Frog and Toad continues at Wheaton Drama, 111 N. Hale Street, Wheaton through December 14. Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 3:00 & 7:00 p.m., Sundays at 3:00 p.m. (No Thursday performances for this production.) For reservations and information, call (630) 260-1820 or order online at http://www.wheatondrama.org/.

It Had To Be You – 8/11/08

For box office information, click on the title of this review.

Finally.

Since I began posting these reviews last month, I’ve seen some really good things, some really bad things and some mediocre things. I’ve never had the occasion to give a full out rave. Until now:

Carla Mutone and Jack Smith are comedic gods and if you don’t order tickets for It Had To Be You at the Village Theater Guild in Glen Ellyn right now, you’re a masochistic theatrical fool who would rather see thirty people do a big name musical passibly than watch two people in a little name show blow the roof off the joint.

Let’s get this out of the way: Directing, lights, sound, set design & decoration, costumes (love the psychedelic boots) and all other backstage aspects are top notch and provide a terrific framework for the acting. Now:

It Had to Be You by Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna concerns Theda Blau, an actress/writer wannabe who traps TV commercial producer/director Vito Pignoli in her apartment on Christmas Eve and attempts to seduce him in every conceivable way known to mankind, if a hurricane can be called seductive.

That’s it. That’s the plot. So as opposed to something like Noises Off, which depends mainly on physical math and geometry, It Had to Be You lives or dies on the character work.

Jack Smith is the perfect straight man for this type of show. He’s warm, personable and funny. Completely believable as a fairly laid-back commercial success who likes everybody but himself. Vito comes across as really decent guy who wouldn’t hurt anybody – even a borderline-psychotic screwball who effectively kidnaps him. Smith’s timing is impeccable and his acting in the more serious moments is right on target.

Carla Mutone’s voice has the slight rasp of the mid 1960s Lucille Ball – and that’s not the only comparison (assuming Lucy wanted to fuck Mr. Mooney). She is a fireball of energy, clearly understands every last itsy bitsy nuance of the part, has a radiant lovability that keeps you from wanting to smack Theda and delivers one of the greatest comic performances you are ever going to see. Mutone completely sells the idea that the wackiness isn’t just sitcom zaniness, but is backed by desperation and misery.

However, it takes two to tango. The work of Mutone and Smith is more than the sum of its parts. One of my prime complaints, as you may have surmised last week, is when actors don’t connect with each other onstage. There is never a moment when Mutone or Smith is in a private little world, showing us How Well They Emote. They are completely in sync at all times and operate like a well-oiled machine (although considering some Theda’s persuasive methods, “well-oiled” is not the most delicate phrasing.) This is teamwork of the highest caliber. Community theatre hasn’t been awful lately, so it isn’t as if this is a diamond in a shit pile. But It Had to Be You is a diamond just laying there waiting to be picked up. The ticket price is only $10. Pick up the goddamned diamond.