Elmo’s ‘Ready for Action’ at Chevy


By John Benson

The production tackles the important issues of child obesity and healthful habits.

The decision is final. Grover is out. Elmo is in.

What originally toured last year as Sesame Street Live’s “Super Grover! Ready for Action” tour has now been renamed — but not recast — as “Elmo! Ready for Action.” The production is scheduled to make its Youngstown debut Thursday through Sunday at Chevrolet Centre.

Thankfully, this is Sesame Street, where sharing is important and monsters are friendly.

“Grover is a little bummed, actually,” Vee Corporation’s Director of Production Clara Rusch said with a laugh. “The change is due to the popularity of Elmo and just makes the kids that much more excited about seeing their favorite character.

“The script has not changed. So the story is the same, it’s just an attempt to make sure people know exactly who they’ll be seeing.”

But what about our beloved Grover with his high voice and wiggly arms?

Said Rusch, “Grover does have a special draw to a lot of people.”

Emblematic of the success of not only “Sesame Street” the television show (debuting in 1969) but also Sesame Street Live productions (debuting in 1980) is the fact most kids can find themselves in the cast of characters that play an important role in children’s education and personal development.

“I think that’s really true,” Rusch said. “You can find someone that you relate to or wish you related to better or someone who reminded you of someone that you’re close to. And the fact that the Sesame Street characters are going through the learning process along with their key audience really keeps this relevant.”

Currently, that learning process enters into a new specialized arena with “Elmo! Ready for Action.” While the plot revolves around Super Grover’s loss of super powers, the story line targets a more important national issue, child obesity. It turns out Grover isn’t eating right, getting exercise or sleeping properly to make his body strong.

“We discover Grover needs to learn about being healthy,” Rusch said. “And we haven’t tackled this subject in this focused way before. I think we certainly touched on healthy eating throughout some of our shows, and often had stories that touched on the need for good rest, but it’s really been a portion of a show, rather than a focus.

“This is the first time we’re really focusing in on it, We always go hand in hand on what they were doing on the [‘Sesame Street’] television show, which is trying to tackle some of America’s issues with couch potatoes and obesity and things we hear about on [the news] all of the time.”

Though the message is important, Rusch said Sesame Street Live organizers are cognizant that often the hardest part about attending kids’ shows is the boredom level experienced by parents.

“We hear that a lot,” Rusch said. “In our show, versus other kids shows, you will see Broadway-level production values, with a high-level lighting show, quality sound and spectacular costumes. The costumes are what really help to bring these characters to life. And so you really do know you’re looking at Grover, Bert, Ernie and others.

“They’ll also hear music they’re familiar with. There’s a James Brown song in the show. And a song from ‘Footloose,’ so there are a lot of popular songs for kids and adults.”

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