Sesame Street Live

[MrsWembly]

Hi there. I was wondering if some of you might like to share your memories of Sesame Street Live. I know I went when I was little, but sadly I don't remember it.

 

[Vic Romano]

I was way too young to remember it now, but MC member AAO made this SS Live Guide and Kyle (Ernie81981) posted the program so this might help jog some memories... unfortunately not mine!

 

[MrsWembly]

Thanks Vic....but the pictures posted on the program aren't there anymore.

 

[superboober]

I saw most if not all of them from 1986-1990 at Wilkes-Barre's F.M. Kirby Center, and I still have all the programs somewhere. For some reason I kind of remember Big Bird's Sesame Street Story and Big Bird and the ABCs performed in reverse order than is listed on the list. Regardless, it always made me curious why Big Bird always wore a tie for the shows, although you'd have to imagine being on stage is a big deal for a 6-year-old bird, thus necessitating formal attire of whatever kind.

During the times I saw the shows, I eagerly awaited them like you would not believe. Being between 4 & 7 at the time, I believed these were the actual characters, out on the road between shooting the shows; I paid particular attention to which characters WEREN'T used in the productions, with the absence of the Miami Mice for whatever reason being the most disappointing for me. The rest of the young audiences were always excited to see it as well; you could almost feel excitement in the air as the PA guy announced there were X amount of minutes left to showtime (I would have read the program from cover to cover long before the curtain went up), reaching a crescendo as the house lights crashed off and a pair of colorful splotlights weaved back and forth over the curtain to a jazzed-up version of the theme. Suffice to say, I was in bliss for the rest of the afternoon.

As for individual show memories, here's what I do recall:

-Big Bird Goes to Hollywood will always be special to me as the first one. Looking back now it's interesting how they tied the performance in with how the show (sort of) actually began, including a variation of the pitch film meeting ("Why don't we call it the Dog and Kitty, Pretty Witty, Nitty Gritty, Itty Bitty Little Kiddie Show?"). Elmo had a pretty decent early bit in it, trying to ignore Prairie's attempts to get him to learn ("A-B-C-D-X-Y-Z, now it's time to watch TV."). The showstopper for me, though, was Oscar's Cab Company bit, where he forces his passengers to push it when it inevitably breaks down (I think they did this on the show itself, right?)

-if it's the one I think it is, Big Bird's Sesame Street Story was fairly good, yet somewhat abstract and bizarre at points (it was the one where they had one hour to put on a good production of some kind, and the executive they go to tries to make them fail by altering the time on the clock, only to have Oscar of all people foil him, right?). I particularly remember the jungle bit (my first introduction to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") and the strange outer space number featuring several characters wearing bizarre alien outfits

-Big Bird & the ABCs was enjoyable, thoroughly enjoyable. I'm not sure who writes these shows, but they had a good thing with Tee Hee the alien girl from the planet Crayon; I think they should have looked into a way to port her over to the main show for a little while. I strongly remember the opening bit where Super Grover spots her ship coming in, crashes spectacularly on the street himself (some things never change) and asks everyone not to laugh when he tells them he just saw a flying saucer (he should have known asking people not to laugh is the surest way to ensure they will laugh). It was nice to see Guy Smiley used to good effect on their game show segment, even if it was a realtively easy show their were playing

-however, I consider Sleeping Birdie to have been the very best of all, a poignant fact considering that it was, I believe, the last one Henson did personally (we saw the performance after he'd left us; the program has a nice tribute in the back). This performance also had fine art outside the theater; since it was February, someone had made Bert and Ernie ice sculptures outside the theater that were even highlighted on the news. I liked the story-within-a-story aspect of it all, especially when Oscar tries to con Cookie out of telling his portion of it by tempting him with you-know-what ("Me want cookie--no, story--no, cookie--no, story..."). Also a plus was the audience participation factor, how they all needed we the viewers to give enough kisses to awkaen Big Bird from his slumber at the end. This show has a pretty good lesson about liking what you are and trying not to get jealous of others just because they have more than you (not to mention that you can easily find information on how to wake up sleeping 8-foot-tall yellow birds who are about to be turned purple-polka-dotted at any branch of the New York Public Library); I'm sure at one point or another we've all felt similar to the Yellow Queen in this production, wishing we did have more. Another plus was seing another version of Monster in the Mirror, with both Grover & Cookie this time; it ranks just as good as those made for the show itself. Quintessential Sesame all in all.

 

[Vic Romano]

Oops, sorry Mrs. W, Kyle must've cleaned up his Photobucket account.

 

[MrsWembly]

Thanks Superboober! I'm hoping that the new Sesame Street Live, Super Grover, will be good. I'm going to see it in a few weeks.

Don't sweat it, Vic.