The kiddos get Schoolhouse Rocks Live! through Friday at the Arkansas Arts Center Children's Theatre, but the center wisely pulled back the curtain on a school night, March 10, for the adults who lovingly remember the cartoon musical that gave us "Conjunction Junction" and "Just a Bill," and who got virtually the same performance just dirtied up a bit and dubbed "Schoolhouse on the Rocks."
It was a nearly sold-out show for nearly 300 adults who, for the previous hour, had sipped on beer and wine and spiked grape drink sucked through screwy straws, and nibbled on gummy bears and "kids" cereal (Lucky Charms, Froot Loops -- all the cereals prohibited by health-conscious parents). The show featured call-and-response and singalongs perfect for the pulse of this crowd.
"We will have canoe and kayak parking available," arts center spokesman Kelly Cargill Crow joked a couple of days before the show, during a week when rain soaked the state.
The actual Schoolhouse Rocks! ran from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s on ABC. It wasn't a show so much as musical cartoon interstitials. Robert Dorough, born in Cherry Hill in 1923 and a member of the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame, wrote and performed many of the songs for the cartoon. Scott Ferguson, a native of Sherwood, is the original director and author of Schoolhouse Rock Live! and an alumnus of the Children's Theatre.
The real show continues with matinee performances today at 2 p.m., and Tuesday through Friday at 2 p.m.
-- Story and photos by Bobby Ampezzan
High Profile on 03/20/2016