Tarleton Theatre in School House Rock Live

BY PAYTON MARKS / Multimedia Journalist

Tarleton Theatre performed the production of School House Rock Live from Feb. 22-24 with a total of four performances. 

I attended the opening night of the musical and thoroughly enjoyed the performance. The show starts with a nervous Tom walking out onto the stage and rehearsing what he is going to say to his new students. 

The lights pan down on the ideas, or otherwise known as George, Dori, Joe, Dina and Schulie as they narrate part of Tom's inner monologue. To help ease his mind, Tom decides to put on the TV and that is when the show starts to pick up and turns into a musical. 

The musical was directed by Daniel Stone and John Greer and featured a live band for the music. The band was comprised of students including Zachary Moore on the keyboard bass, Abbye Nash on drums and Alyssa Church on percussion. 

School House Rock had six roles and an understudy. The cast of the musical was Clay Luton as Tom, the main character who is a schoolteacher about to start his first day at his new job. Then there are the “ideas” also known as George, Dori, Schulie, Joe and Dina. 

The ideas were played by Gabriel Ramos as George, Anna Lee Williams as Dori, Olivia Ray as Schulie, Madison Freeman as Joe and Hope Fambrough as Dina, and Caroline Bachofer as the understudy. The night that I saw the show Bachofer filled in for Williams.

Tom is startled by the presence of the ideas at first and even in denial when they attempt to explain that they are the different ideas inside of his head. This scene of dialogue helps the actors to transition into the first song of the show, “A Noun Is A Person, Place Or Thing.” The noun song as I kept referring to it in my head is a fun little song about, you guessed it nouns. 

My favorite part of the song was the use of lights throughout the house, where the audience is, as well as on stage. “A Noun Is A Person, Place Or Thing” was the first of many catchy songs and the cast did a really good job at keeping the audience entertained with it. 

The next song they sang is called “Three Is A Magic Number.” In this song, George is the lead and Ramos does a very good job of not only playing George, but also being the lead singer in a song such as this one. 

Ramos has a type of charisma on stage that is nice to see in performers, especially those in roles such as George. Normally hearing someone sing a song about counting by threes may not be the most entertaining thing in the world, but the music and the cast make it work. 

The third song was “Mother Necessity,” which was one of my favorite numbers. In this number, they talked about history and different inventions throughout history and acted out scenes throughout history, which was super fun to watch. 

Then in following the trend of history Dori, Schulie and Dina, perform a song about women’s suffrage called “Sufferin’ Till Suffrage.” Bachofer, Ray and Fambroguh all put on an excellent performance of this song. Although a bit slower, the song ties in very well with the story and is an excellent addition. 

They also performed the song “I’m Just A Bill,” which as someone who heard that song while studying government in elementary school, it was so fun to dance around in my seat to a much more familiar song as well. 

After the famous “I’m Just A Bill” song they sang a song about adjectives and used cue cards and a backpack crop to put on the Unpack Your Adjectives songs and it was enjoyable to watch. Ray was the lead for this song, and she nailed it. 

After the adjective song, the ideas and Tom played hide and seek, and they hid behind blocks and in the audience. It made for a very good laugh. While they are being “active,” Tom sings a song about circulation in your heart and asks for the audience’s help. 

This number is cute because Tom and the ideas all hold hands and spin around the stage with each other. 

They sang one more song before intermission. This song was about adverbs and using safari props such as a rhino, kangaroo, aardvark and a school bus, which major props to the prop team for creating such good props, no pun intended. 

Then after a brief 10 minute intermission, the show picks back up with the song “Figure Eight,” which is about multiplying by eights. The song was sung as a solo by Ray, who has a beautiful voice and a captivating stage presence. 

Following that song is another song I learned in elementary school, “Conjunction Junction,” which is even more fun with dancing and costumes and a stage. 

Then they talk about how the U.S. is made up of people from different ethnicities and different countries and sing “The Great American Melting Pot.” They used props such as a giant pot and characters that were decorated to represent other countries that people have immigrated from. 

To close it all out Tom sings what he calls a “new schoolhouse rock song” called “The Tale Of Mr. Morton,” while the ideas sit and listen. Then comes a curtain call. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the show. I think the costuming was done well, the music was fun and the casting was excellent. The light and sound crew also did a great job and of course the show would not have been complete without them.