The Midnight Train Crossing

This was the show for younger children, but since it was Frog and Toad, based on the books by Arnold Lobel (which I adored). The books are just simple stories about the adventures best friends Frog and Toad share, and this play was about... well... a year with Frog and Toad.

The title characters were played by Brian J. Gill (Frog) who was great, and who I had never seen perform in anything before, and John Maclay (Toad) who I have seen in many things (The king in The Quiltmaker's Gift most recently) who was also great.
The other highlight in the cast was Paul Helm who pulled triple duty as a bird, frog's father, and a snail.

First, I want to talk about the costumes, which were great. Some how, they had to suggest animals, but they weren't overly amphibian-like. Frog wore mostly green, and his clothing had long lines to them, making him look thinner, and longer legs, very frog like. Toad wore browns and oranges, with shorter lines that made him look rounder and more toad like.
Some how, this worked. It told a lot about their characters - Frog is a lot more easy going, and Toad is more up tight.
Turtle (Beth Mulkerron) had another great costume, green with a back pack, and glasses that made her eyes look more... turtle like.
Snail had a shell of course, but he was also dressed in a sort of cowboy outfit, for reasons that became clear later on.

The show was a musical, with real musicians. There were three of them - a piano player (Alissa Rhode), a drummer (Michael Lorenz) and a bass player (John Dominguez) and they were tucked into the back of the stage, under an arch way. All of the singers had great voices.

I'm going to list off some of my favorite parts of the show.
The show opens with birds migrating in for the spring. They sing about how this is the start of the year.

Frog wakes up, and calls over to where Toad lives that it's time for Toad to wake up. He doesn't want to, but Frog continues to try to wake him. When Toad's alarm goes off, he hits his alarm clock with his shoe and breaks it. So Toad's clock is broken throughout the whole show and it becomes a running joke. He tells Frog to wake him up when it's May (since it's only April) and so Frog turns the pages on Toad's calendar to May.

At the opening of the show - spring time - Toad decides he is going to plant a garden, so he buries seeds in the ground. In actuality, he lifted open a section of the stage where they had a patch of dirt under it. That was clever.
He urges the seeds to come up by singing to them, telling them it's safe to come up. Then he declares that he will recite a poem for the seeds, then he decides to do an interpretive dance, and finally, he comes out with a tuba.
Finally his flowers pop out of the ground. Literally.

Frog finds out that Toad has never gotten a letter before, so he sits down and writes him a letter, giving it to snail to deliver. That's why snail is dressed as a cowboy - it's the pony express! Snail sings a song about his important job, delivering the mail, and how he will be swift and sure, and he "hurries" off.

Periodically throughout the show, Frog asks Toad if he's gotten any mail. That and if Toad knows what time it is. Toad always says that he never gets any mail, and that his clock is broken.
Another reoccurring joke is that the girl mice - who wore wigs with the suggestion of ears - always giggled and squealed whenever Frog would say Hi to them.

The other people in the cast - the ensemble people and the kids in the Frog cast, came out with a sheet of blue material and draped across the front of the stage, and tada, a lake. There were holes in it for people to stick their heads through.
Frog comes in in his bathing suit, and Toad comes in in a bathrobe. He makes Frog turn a way because he doesn't want Frog to see him. Toad thinks he looks funny in a bathing suit. (That's the name of the song in this section)
They swim around, poking their heads out of the holes, and it very much looks like they are swimming.
Under the blue cloth, Frog rolls around on a little skateboard type thing to move him faster from one side to the other, so he doesn't have to crawl.
But then, Turtle comes to sit on the edge of the water. Frog asks her to leave, but this backfires because now she wants to see just how funny Toad looks.
Other animals come by too, to see if Toad really does look funny in a bathing suit. Finally Toad can't take it any more. He's cold in the water, and the other animals won't leave, so he just gets out of the water.
I don't think he looked that funny. He wore a suit with stripes in dull colors, but that was it.

There was a very sweet scene where Frog leaves Toad a note, that he's gone off to be by himself. Toad thinks that Frog is sad, but quite the opposite is true - some times he likes to be by himself, thinking about how happy he is. That makes him happy. He sings a pretty song about how he enjoys being a frog.

In another fun scene, Toad is making cookies. He follows the recipe perfectly, but then reaches the last step of the recipe: Put in the oven for seven to eight minutes until golden brown. But, he doesn't have a clock, and Frog forgot to wind his clock that morning. How is Toad to know when his cookies are done? Three of the mice come to visit, and ask Toad his problem. They speak in unison the whole time, which I think is pretty impressive. Toad gets increasingly upset when he says again and again that his clock is broken. They suggest that he just look in the oven to see when they are done.
"Wait!" says Toad, "I'm getting an idea! I will look in the oven to see if they are done!"
He offers the mice some cookies, but they say they are meeting someone for lunch at noon, then ask Toad if he knows what time it is.
Frog shows them Toad's broken clock, and they hurry off.
So Frog and Toad sample the cookies, which are very good. Then they have another, and another and another... until Frog finally decides that to prevent them from eating all the cookies they should share them with the birds and other animals.

So after singing a song about cookies, we go to intermission... where we went out to the lobby and ate cookies. I bet they sold a lot of cookies, and luckily, they had many cookies, enough for everyone.

By the second act, we have moved from summer to fall. Toad still has not gotten his letter, but snail has come by three times, reprising his song.
Fall comes quickly, the leaves fall from the lighting fixtures.

Frog and Toad emerge from their houses, wearing scarves, and they survey the leaves. They decide independently to rake each others yards. They sneak over to each others houses, but meet half way.
Because they want it to be a surprise, they both hide their rakes.
Toad says that he's going out for a brisk walk, since it's a nice brisk day. Frog says that it is a nice day, and he was planning on going on a leisurely stroll - a stroll is like a walk but at a slower pace, otherwise he would go with Toad.
Toad agrees that he would not like to stroll with Frog, because he wants to walk faster. So they hurry off to each others houses to rake each other's yards. It's hard work, but it will be worth it because it will make the other one happy. They each decide that they are not ever going to tell the other that they raked their yard.
And then, at the end of the song, while the two are on their way home, some mischievous squirrels come and mess it all up, so neither find out what the other did.

On a dark and stormy night, Frog tells Toad a spooky story of something that happened when he was a little frog. Toad asks him if it really happened a few times, but all that Frog will say is "Maybe yes, maybe no" While Frog tells his story, other people are on stage: His mother and father and a younger version of himself (Alec Aldred). They were out for a picnic, but got lost. His parents told him that there is a Great and Terrible Frog who eats little frogs. Then they go off to look for the path, leaving little Frog alone. It isn't long before little Frog realize he is not alone...
Panels open in the archway above the bandshell and two large eyes peer out. Frog's voice gets reverb as he does the voice of the Great and Terrible Frog, who asks little Frog to turn his skipping rope.
Then little Frog gets smart and uses the skipping rope to tie up the Great and Terrible Frog and hurries off to find his parents.
I thought this scene was very well done. The Great And Terrible Frog was just eyes, but they did a great job at making it look like a big frog.

During the winter time, Frog and Toad go sledding. A little portion of the stage was raised up at an angle that they put the sled on. The two got on the sled and went down the hill. Part way down, Frog fell off, and landed with a bunch of moles. I liked the mole costumes - kids in coats with hard hats with lights.
Toad crashes a bit later, and is angry at Frog for leaving him mid way down the hill. The sledding was Frog's idea after all.
Toad says that he is never going to talk to Frog again, but just then... snail finally turns up with the mail. It's the letter that Frog sent back in spring. He wrote that he was sad that Toad was sad because he never got a letter, so Frog decided to send him a letter to make him happy.
Toad forgives Frog and the two make up.

Then it is Christmas. Frog is late, and Toad works himself into a worry. What if Frog is lost in the dark, or fallen in a hole, or being chased by wolves?
Frog finally arrives and Toad asks him if he's lost. Frog looks around, then says no.
"And you're not fallen in a hole?"
Frog looks down, "Nope."
"And you're not being chased by wolves?"
Frog looks outside, "Nope."

Then Frog says why he's late - he was wrapping Toad's present: A brand new clock.

The friends celebrate Christmas, as do the other animals.

The winter passes, and spring comes again. The birds return again. A whole year with Frog and Toad has passed, and now the two friends are ready to wake up from hibernation and begin a new year.