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Frog and Toad at Carousel Theatre tells a tale of friendship in song and dance

In a world of Halo, South Park, and Laser Tag, Frog and Toad, now playing at the Carousel Theatre on Granville Island provides respite.  In their usual crowd-pleasing style, Carousel Theatre  puts talented actors together on a pleasant set for an hour of singing and dancing that even grandparents will find appropriate for the under 5 crowd.

Barren of  the scary and the crude,  this enactment of a beloved children's  book by Arnold Lobel, delights and entertains.  Frog and Toad marked my third Carosel production.  Horton Hears a Hoo and Robin Hood came first and featured some of the same actors. 

Allan Zinyk (TOAD) will always be Horton to me, because that was the first production I saw him in. A great comic actor who knows just the right intonation to get a theatre full of children to laugh, Zinyk was just as convincing as an elephant as he was as a Friar.  He hops through this production as the grumpy but lovable friend to Toad (Todd Talbot) with zeal. 

The snail, played by Darren Burkett, stopped the show, I thought, demonstrating great singing and dancing and a talent that seemed about to burst against the strain of the confines of this small, successful children's story.

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