Cool kids with a meaningful message

April 09, 2016 12:00 am • Last Updated: April 11, 2016 5:20 pm

Amanda Smith as Ms. Square in "Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical." (Photo by Josh Brown)

Lily Polkadot is an 8-year-old girl who’s just moved to town. Her skin in covered in polkadots. She’s very nice and very smart.

Sky Square is an 8-year-old boy whose skin is covered in squares. He’s shy and has a secret crush on Lily.

Penelope Square is Sky’s older sister and her skin also is covered in squares. She’s strongly against mixing Polkadot and Square people and is very vocal about her convictions.

This is the premise of “Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical,” which takes a hard look at how we perceive and treat “the other” but with kid-friendly music, an engaging storyline and an optimistic message.

Jacqueline Hubbard, executive director of The Ivoryton Playhouse, where the new play is premiering, credits Douglas Lyons as “the force of nature behind this whole project.”

Lyons, 29, grew up in New Haven and holds a BFA from The Hartt School in West Hartford. He toured with “The Book of Mormon,” is currently on Broadway in “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” and is lyricist for the new movie musical “The Dancer & Composer.”

In his “spare time” Lyons conceived of, co-composed and wrote the lyrics for “Polkadots.”

The musical is loosely based on “The Little Rock Nine”—nine African-American students who entered Arkansas’s segregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957, creating a nationwide uproar when the state’s governor called out the National Guard to prevent them from entering the building. President Eisenhower responded by sending in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne division to escort the students safely inside, where a military presence remained for the duration of the school year.

Lyons says the idea for the musical was specifically sparked by a YouTube interview with actress Phylicia Rashad about her growing up years in the segregated south.

After encountering “colored” and “whites only” water fountains in a grocery store, Rashad says, “I was always a curious child. I wanted to know why? I went over and I tasted ‘that’ water and ‘that’ water didn’t taste any different. And I knew something in that moment that I wouldn’t be able to articulate for a long time, and that was that humanity had tricked itself into refusing to accept itself in its fullness.”

“She realized how ridiculous that was,” Lyons says, “and it sort of spearheaded my thoughts.”

In his show, the separate fountains Rashad refers to are represented by a “Square Sprinkler” and a “Polkadot Pump.”

Lyons also was influenced by many documentaries and books, including “Through My Eyes: Autobiography of Ruby Bridges,” who, in 1960 was the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school.

He says, “I already knew a lot about my history, so I didn’t have to dig too deep about what needed to be told, but how.”

And so, in the spring of 2014, Lyons teamed up with songwriter Greg Borowsky and playwright Melvin Tunstall III to create the musical.

The reason the production is aimed at grade school children, Lyons says, is because “kids that are younger than me in this generation don’t know about segregation. I think we have to teach them what was, so history doesn’t repeat itself. Adults have already made up their minds, tainted by world issues. But if we can catch kids early on, we can hopefully stop this cycle of intolerance, racism, hatred and discrimination.”

Connecting with young audiences

Lyons believes if a story is based in honesty, an audience will respond to it, and his young audiences will find themselves reflected by what’s on stage.

“They can identify with the characters. If they feel they’re being preached at or screamed at, they’ll be turned off,” he says.

And, kids will have no problem relating to the music.

“Musically, I have a gospel, R&B, pop background as a singer. It’s music kids will connect to,” he points out. “There’s a Disney feeling to some songs, some rap …

“I wanted to create a world that didn’t look like everyday life to make kids take a ride in a way that they haven’t,” Lyons adds. “A girl with polkadot skin is something they’ve never seen. Hopefully, their minds (are ready) to take the journey.”

He notes that the original designer from “Wicked,” Joe Dulude, is doing makeup design.

“Lots of parents are coming to us saying, ‘I want my child to see this story,’ Lyons says. “It’s a universal story and I think once people (of all ages) are in the theater they’ll be happy they came.”

“Polkadots” was performed last year at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, but Ivoryton is its first full-scale regional performance, and it’s scheduled to go on the road this fall. An animated version with illustrations by Salina Giardino also is in the works.

Lyons notes that it’s tough to get an original work seen or heard and he’s happy that Hubbard is premiering it at the Ivoryton Playhouse.

Hubbard was first given the script by Mike Morris, musical director at the Playhouse, who teaches at The Hartt School, where Lyons was his student.

“When I read it, I knew it was exactly the right kind of show for us,” she says. “We do one kids’ show a year and I read a lot of scripts and they often talk down to them or preach. But this is dealing with a relevant topic: respecting your individuality. It’s a story with a good, solid message you want kids to understand and take on without feeling they’ve been handed some medicine. And, the music was so upbeat and fun that I knew instantly kids would connect to these characters because the music is their music.”

Hubbard is grateful to The Community Foundation of Middlesex County for helping to fund the production as part of its ongoing campaign for bully-free communities. The funding will enable the theater to offer school performances in addition to the public performances — about 1,500 children from regional schools will attend — and will provide a curriculum guide for teachers to talk about topics in the musical before the students see it.

“It’s part of our educational program, but the main reason to come is it’s a really entertaining show,” she says, “and a lot of fun to bring your kids or grandkids.”

Myha’la Herrold as Lily Polkadot in the play “Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical.” (Photo by Josh Brown)