It's not really what modern musicals are supposed to be. It's not dark like Phantom of the Opera or emotional like Les Miserable or nostalgic like Hairspray or groundbreaking like Rent. Instead, William and Robert Reale's A Year with Frog and Toad is a familiar story with witty lyrics and enjoyable music. And, most importantly, it is one of the only CDs that truly does engage every member of my family.
Of course, Phil and I remember the "Frog and Toad" books, which were among the first chapter books for so many young readers. Each of the scenes and songs in the show are taken directly from the brief stories told in the short chapters of the books. Together, Frog and Toad go sledding, make cookies, rake each others leaves, go swimming, and plant seeds-- traveling through the seasons and depending on Frog's characteristic optimism to outweigh Toad's chronic pessimism. On the way, they are continually heckled by side characters the Birds and (as the Birds fly South for the winter) the Squirrels, who are delightfully catty and humorously insulting. And then there's Snail, who is a lesson in perseverance as he spends the entire show comically reoccurring as the “Snail with the Mail”, taking two acts and four seasons to deliver one letter.
We all love this CD, and we all have different reasons. Phil gets a chuckle from listening to the creative insults and sarcastic comments poked at poor Toad. The kids like it because the music is peppy and easy for a toddler to dance to, and because the characters speak as if they were reading their own dialogue from the books—with story-hour simplicity. I like it because it does what all the best musicals do; it tells a story through the music and accompanying dialogue so that you don't have to actually see the show know that you love it.
