Year with Frog and Toad, A

[Stage play that runs Apr. 23-June 16 at the Children's Theatre Company at 2400 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404; for more information, log on to childrenstheatre.org or call 612/874-0400.] Creative, imaginative sets and spirited songs (such as Seeds, The Letter, Under Water Ballet, Cookies, Toad to the Rescue, and Down the Hill) highlight Peter C. Brosius' entertaining, upbeat, family-oriented, humor-punctuated, fun-filled, heartwarming, well-paced, 2-hour stage musical based on Arnold Lobel's novels in which a nervous, tuba-playing Toad (Reed Sigmund), who feels funny in his swimsuit, and his feisty best friend Frog (John-Michael Zuerlein), who pens a letter to his amphibious buddy, spend a year engaging in various activities such as planting a flower garden, swimming, raking leaves until their bodies ache, flying kites, baking cookies, and sledding down a snow-covered hill while the singing birds (Ryan London Levin, Becca Claire Hart, and Janely Rodriguez) eventually fly South and a slow-moving Snail (Ryan London Levin) finally delivers Frog's first letter via the snail mail.
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