Family activities can always create special days and special memories, but even more so when includes a part of your childhood you can share with your children. A Year with Frog & Toad was one of my favorite books when I was growing up and I remember it fondly. I kept a very old and battered copy of it to share with my kids and they have fallen in love with it too.
A Year with Frog & Toad is a simple book; it’s a serious of stories of the great friendship between Frog and Toad throughout all four seasons of the year.
This fall, the Chicago Children’s Theatre brought A Year with Frog & Toad to the stage and the show has been extended to November 12. If you haven’t see it yet, I strongly encourage it.
Tickets
Tickets for A Year with Frog & Toad are $35 and can be purchased online or by calling 872-222-9555. Subscription packages are also available and allow you to save 20% off the normal single-ticket price.
The Station
The show is at the Chicago Children’s Theatre’s new location, The Station, at 100 S. Racine. The new digs are pretty impressive; it’s a former police station that has been updated to accommodate performances, classes, and camps. There’s a large lobby where you can relax in comfy chairs pre- or post-show and purchase snacks and souvenirs. There’s (limited) free on-site parking, and The Station is just down the block from the Big Monster Door, and the Warm Belly Bakery, which I highly recommend checking out.
A Year with Frog & Toad
A Year with Frog & Toad is recommended for all ages and runs about an hour long with no intermission.
As with all Chicago Children’s Theatre shows, A Year with Frog & Toad brings together amazing actors and crew to bring the audience inside the book. The Pritzker Family Studio Theatre accommodates 149 audience members, and for Frog and Toad the audience is dispersed along the walls with action going on down the center of the room and on three small stages.
Charles Osgood
The sets and costumes are impressive, but not elaborate – perfect for an audience of young children who are close to the action. The costumes are very clever, incorporating street clothes with small accents like a shell-shaped backpack for the turtle and fur for the squirrel. Kids can identify what animals they are, but won’t be intimidated by masks or over-the-top ensembles.
Charles Osgood
As the seasons pass, we see Frog and Toad doing things like swimming and sledding, and I guarantee kids and adults will be delighted with how the stage and sets transform to fit the seasons.
Charles Osgood
A Year with Frog & Toad is filled with music, with musicians in the gazebo, characters playing instruments, and several songs throughout the show, including “Cookies”, “Getta Loada Toad”, “Merry Almost Christmas”, and “I’m Coming Out of My Shell”. If you see the show, I dare you to keep a straight face during “I’m Coming Out of My Shell”.
Charles Osgood
My family and I had lots of laugh-out-loud moments during the show and I love the feeling of simultaneous nostalgia and discovery that comes from seeing a familiar book presented in such a new and creative way.
