By Christopher Samuel '26 (Assistant Editor)
Please note: This article was written in May 2024
Row by row, the lights went out until the stage was barely illuminated in deep blue. The Meeting Room was packed with quiet students, friends, faculty, and family, all waiting for the show to begin. Soon, three birds entered the stage singing about their return trip from migrating to the South, starting the musical off with a happy, whimsical mood. Following this, we were introduced to Frog and Toad waking up from their winter hibernation and taken along with them through snapshots of the seasons and their lives in A Year With Frog and Toad.
Every spring at Friends’ Central, there is a play or musical led by seniors, performed specifically for ninth and tenth graders, who are the only students cast for the production. This year, the school prepared A Year With Frog and Toad. The fun Broadway musical based on the books by Arnold Lobel catalogs events in the lives of a slew of talking animals, focusing on the friendship between a frog and a toad, played by Olwyn Palumbos ‘26 and Lucas Hoffmann ‘27, respectively. The directors were Sylvia Hoffmann ‘24 and Hanan Muaddi ‘24, and the stage managers were Carvel Camp ‘26 and Sammi Smith ‘26. The production manager was Megan Schumacher, and the technical and music director was Jerry Kapral. Friends’ Central’s rendition of the musical was excellent!
While the play is certainly light-hearted, it still features important messages about navigating relationships with trust and kindness. Frog and Toad constitute the main friendship, but there are many other characters that vary from friendly to antagonistic. From mail delivered by a snail to sledding mishaps, the musical shows amusing snippets of the spring, summer, and fall that Frog and Toad spend together. These experiences serve not only to entertain but to give a more holistic understanding of the relationship between Frog and Toad and their relationships with other creatures. They also develop the characters and their personalities over the course of the musical.
The musical, brimming with stellar dance numbers and incredible vocals, was an exploration of universal themes of bonding and the cyclical but unpredictable nature of life. It was a phenomenal production with remarkable directing, costume design, acting, choreography, and songs. A big thanks and congratulations go to everyone in the cast and crew who gave us such an awesome performance!
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