‘Schoolhouse Rock Live!’ delivers the magic of learning for all ages

By Lorien Strange
©2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Maybe my passion for journalism was prefigured by my second-grade fascination with the song I’m Just a Bill. As someone who moved between schools frequently as a kid, I was delighted whenever my new teacher would announced that we’d be watching Schoolhouse Rock in all its glorious ’70s, ’80s, and early ’90s graininess.

Now the Weston Theater Company is bringing this love of learning to the next generation in a medium that never goes out of style: live theater with Schoolhouse Rock Live! Originally developed for the stage by Theater BAM, you can expect far more fun than a series of Saturday morning repeats that the show’s title might imply.

This free-to-attend production (donations accepted) is touring southern Vermont, and I caught the show in Brownsville at the West Windsor Town Hall. Somehow I managed to dodge the usher going in — as soon as she spotted me sitting down, she came right over to make sure I was equipped with a bag of buttered popcorn and knew that there was bottled water in the back of the room.

The vibes on set were decidedly old-school. Courtesy scenic designer Danielle Delafuente, outsized wooden blocks, playing cards and an Etch-A-Sketch became the playground of a cast of characters from across the Schoolhouse Rock Live! universe.

But it wouldn’t take any familiarity with the cartoons to appreciate the play. Loosely structured around the first-day jitters-induced fever dreams of a young teacher (the charmingly befuddled Oliver Boomer), the performance is in keeping with the spirit of the show.

Weston’s Young Company are the stars of the show — sometimes literally, like in Interplanet Janet. They burst onto the stage with relentless enthusiasm, sweeping up everyone in the joy of learning. I never thought I’d get chills from Three is a Magic Number (courtesy the electric voice of Aidan Ramirez) or see my favorite David Bautista (returning to the Young Company from last year) as Bernie Sanders doing a sitting kickline.

And in true Weston style, why sing-along to a canned recording when you could have a keyboard, a tambourine, a guitar, woodblocks and more all live onstage, courtesy Music Director Jaz Koft?

Rather than dress the ensemble as giant versions of the cartoons, costume designer Jennifer Salter has the cast in playful vintage wear. The colors are muted so as not to be distracting, but there’s still plenty of personality. Think cute school picture day meets ’70s-themed photo booth — striped shirts and overalls, a cream crop sweater with cherries, and no shortage of bell-bottomed lettering.

For all we might have hoped as kids, TV characters don’t reach out and invite us to come sing with them onstage. And that’s where I was most impressed with the cast — their ability to make the audience part of the show, especially its youngest members.

In Sufferin’ Till Suffrage, Jessica Olexy brought the same wonder she delivered singing Snow in last year’s White Christmas. Bella Van Bergen delighted with the kindness of the girl who’s always inviting the shy kids to sit with her and all the spunk of her bouncy pigtails.

During Ready Or Not, Here I Come, the cast runs to find hiding places within the audience. That’s how I got to see Melea Dessommes put her elbow over the back of her newfound seat, turn around to the girl behind her, and pass on the instructions for the next part of the song.

Even if you have no intention of brushing up on elementary school grammar and civics this summer, it’s worth going just to see these performers dance. Choreographer Brionna Trilling brings all the zany fun of a cartoon without the unnerving jitteriness into the slick moves of the cast as they pop over, under and through the levels of the set.

While the audience was dominated by kids and their families, there were also plenty of adults who’d gone on their own. And they seemed to be having even more fun than the kids, clapping and snapping along to their favorite tunes and leading a standing ovation at the end.

The curriculum has been lovingly updated where necessary (Technically, Pluto’s not a planet), which could help explain why the song choices skew heavily toward the grammar side of the Schoolhouse spectrum.

And there’s a certain amount of timeliness in Weston’s selection of this play: The diverse cast singing the preamble of the Constitution is a wonderful preamble to the 250th birthday of the United States.

The juxtaposition alone is enough to make The Preamble and Sufferin’ Till Suffrage a poignant reminder of how hard individuals in our nation have fought to gain rights.

Schoolhouse Rock offers the optimistic history of our nation as we’ve known them since our childhood.  Directed by the formidably fun Susan Haefner, Schoolhouse Rock Live! is running through July 4 in locations around southern Vermont:

Based on the classic TV series by George Newall and Tom Yohe with book by Scott Ferguson, George Keating and Kyle Hall. Click here to see the schedule and reserve your seats for this free production.