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Elmo on Federal Street
By JOHN BENSON
“Sunny Day, sweeping the clouds away.”
Over the last four decades, those simple words have been special to generations of parents and kids who felt something inviting and exciting whenever a new episode of “Sesame Street” came on the television.
For VEE Corp. Senior Vice President of Production Jim Waters, such excitement and anticipation has lent itself to the Sesame Street Live experience, where for nearly three decades the popular monster cast has been brought to theaters around the globe. This includes the latest touring show “When Elmo Grows Up,” which comes to Youngstown Friday through May 2 at Powers Auditorium.
“It’s really an evergreen product where the kids still relate to the characters, and I think the characters keep evolving with the times as well,” said Waters, during a phone call to Minnesota. “It’s still with that base group of characters, their personalities that cover all ranges. There’s a little bit of everybody in each one of these characters and really many of the kids identify with one or two.
“And just how they’ve updated how things fit together from education to family life and so on, it’s really continued to grow along the way.”
The recent growth on the television show and now to the theater stage includes the introduction of new fairy Muppet Abby Cadabby, who joined the cast for the 2007-2008 season.
Depending on your “Sesame Street” knowledge, you may remember the last new character introduced on the show was Zoe around the turn of the century.
“It’s really a goal to create strong female characters,” Waters said. “It’s nice for all of us that there’s a much more equal balance between male and female characters. It’s also great for us because it really balances out the singing between male and female voices. And Abby is really funny. She’s soft-spoken, and she’s a little bit of an absent-minded fairy. Her spells are never quite doing what she imagines they’ll do.”
Theatergoers attending “When Elmo Grows Up” will see this firsthand when Abby Cadabby, Elmo, Rosita and others attempt to answer the question of what they want to be when they grow up. The sing-along friendly musical finds Bert dreaming of becoming a forest ranger, Telly longing to be a cowboy and Abby Cadabby wanting to be a fairy godmother.
Waters said the Broadway-quality musical production teaches children about patience, acceptance and teamwork through songs such as “Home on the Range,” “Down on the Corner,” “Give a Little Love,” “I Love Trash” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”
“It’s great, and it really gives a full offering of different growing up possibilities,” Waters said. “It’s really a fun way of looking at it from a kid’s point of view. And the kids are a part of the show. They’re built into each number. So be sure to bring your singing voices and your dancing shoes.”