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Try to imagine your family’s reaction if, upon returning home to what everyone thought was an empty house, you found a crocodile in the bathtub. Unnerving, bizarre and terrifying come to mind as ways to describe the scene.
But it might not be the worst thing that could happen, especially if the croc in question—cheerfully wielding a back brush, and with a letter of introduction hanging around his neck—was named Lyle, and your young son was trying to cope with the sadness and uncertainty of moving to a new town where he had no friends.
That’s the initial premise of “Lyle, Lyle Crocodile,” the musical coming to the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center in a Theatre IV production on Saturday, October 2, at 3 p.m. Based on the beloved picture books by Bernard Waber, the show is appropriate for kindergarten through fifth grade students and their families.
The Primm family’s first encounter with Lyle sets in motion a series of challenges and character-building episodes, ranging from a pickup game of baseball, in which Lyle saves the day by using his tail as a bat, to a face-off with Mr. Grumps, who claims that crocodiles aren’t welcome in the neighborhood, to Lyle being separated from his new friends and family by the croc’s former owner, showman Hector P. Valenti.
“This show has a wonderful lesson, that everything is not what it looks like on the outside,” said Gordon Bass, who originated the role of Hector in Theater IV’s first production of the show in 1997. “It’s about tolerance, understanding, and looking under the surface,” he said in a phone interview this week, adding that it draws on all the best elements of live musical theater: “There’s laughter, pathos—it runs the whole gamut.”
Mr. Bass, who has been with Theatre IV for 27 years, 15 as an actor and 12 as tour manager, said that the crowd-pleasing show almost didn’t make it to a second production after its 1997 debut. The two collaborators who created the book, lyrics and music, author Bernard Waber and Charles Strouse, the Broadway composer responsible for “Annie” and “Bye Bye Birdie,” among others, had a falling out when the show was partway through its first production. When Theatre IV wanted to mount a second production in the spring of 1998, the company was hit with a restraining order forbidding them from using the original material.
Fortunately for the thousands upon thousands of young people who have been enjoying the show ever since, Theatre IV artistic director Bruce C. Miller came to the rescue, creating a new script, songs and lyrics so that the show could go on.
Today, the Theatre IV version of the show has become a classic, as beloved by kids, parents and teachers as a musical as it has always been as a book.
From a curriculum standpoint, the show connects with art, family ties, language arts, literary classics, music, reading and character development. For more information, visit theatreiv.com/inschool.html#fallk5.
“Lyle, Lyle Crocodile” will be presented at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Saturday, October 2 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15, $20 and $25, available at the Arts Center box office at 76 Main Street, by calling 288-1500, or online at whbpac.org.
Andrew Botsford on Sep 21, 2010