It’s rare to find common ground between the generations — entertainment that can be enjoyed by folks no matter their age or interests. “Fraggle Rock” is such a show, one that has engaged audiences of all generations since its television debut some 43 years ago. A creation of the Jim Henson Company, the family entertainment house known for the Muppets, innovative puppetry, beloved characters and advanced animatronics, “Fraggle Rock” was described by Henson himself as “a high-energy, raucous musical romp … a lot of silliness.”
“Fraggle Rock” began as a musical puppet series aimed at kids, built around a group of interconnected societies of Muppet creatures. Beyond its appeal to fans of all ages, the program had a larger purpose: its characters were allegories for serious issues such as prejudice, spiritual solace, personal identity, environmental impact and social conflict, all while retaining the puppetry that became the Henson Company’s trademark.
The Apple TV reboot, “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock,” was recently adapted as a stage show, “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock Live,” with an all-new storyline and the classic songs made famous by the TV series. The musical is now on its second national tour and will come to the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre at the Clayton Center for the Arts on Tuesday, Oct. 27.
For John Tartaglia, who wrote and directed the live show, that all-ages appeal has become a mission. He’s an actor, director, writer and puppeteer whose résumé includes a Tony nomination as part of the original Broadway company of “Avenue Q,” originating the role of Pinocchio in “Shrek the Musical” and an Emmy nomination for his role in Disney Channel’s “Johnny and the Sprites,” among numerous other credits. He is vice president of development and production for The Jim Henson Company and creative supervisor of the “Fraggle Rock” brand. He executive produced, wrote and captained the puppet team for the Emmy-winning reboot “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock,” and performed a number of characters — Gobo Fraggle, Architect Doozer, Gunge, Barry Blueberry and Sprocket the dog.
“If you’re a fan of either the new show or the original series, and if you’re like, ‘Oh, I hope they do this song or that song,’ we probably are,” he said. “What was kind of the fun, honestly, was saying, ‘Oh, how do you take this song from the series that was written for this reason and put it in the show for this reason and make it work?’ That was a really fun challenge.”
Unlike the puppets featured on the television series, the live show pairs five actors in costume as the main characters with hand puppets. “We really wanted the Fraggles to be able to dance and to move and be theatrical,” Tartaglia explained. “So the versions you see in the live tour are costume characters, but they have these special triggers in the performer’s hands that make the mouth of the costume move. So you’re still getting that puppetry sense. Basically, everything got scaled up one level, and what it does for the live show is that it makes it feel much more immersive, like you’re there in Fraggle Rock with those characters because your view is so much more expanded.”
There’s a variety of puppetry, costumes, characters and performance styles, he said. “You kind of get it all.”
The stage show also asks more of the audience’s imagination.
“You’re asking the audience to take this amazing kind of leap of belief,” Tartaglia said. “And your job, hopefully, if you do it right, is to win the audience over, so that halfway through the show, they’re like, ‘Wait a minute! Oh yeah, we’re watching a show.’ Hopefully, you forget that because you’re enjoying yourself so much. I think about that all the time when I go to see a musical. I’m very physically aware that I’m sitting in a seat, I’m in the theater, that this is a stage show, but you get so absorbed. The storytelling is good, and the music’s good, and because you care so deeply about the characters, you’re worried about them. So if we do our job right, hopefully you’re willing to take that leap of faith with us and just kind of go along on the ride.”
Because the tour is only in its second year on the road, the experience is still fresh.
“It’s all very new,” Tartaglia said. “And it’s funny because when I took over as the creative supervisor for the Fraggle Rock brand three or four years ago, I was so surprised because I grew up as a fan of the original series in the ’80s, and it very much inspired my career. The one thing that we’d never done with the Fraggles is a live stage show, and what’s so funny to me about that is it’s such a live kind of experience. You want to dance when you hear this music. It’s known for its incredible music. The original series had over 120 original songs, and they were all really good. So we were like, ‘Wait a minute, this needs to be a stage show.’ I grew up watching ‘Sesame Street Live,’ and I love anything that tours around the country and brings these characters to people’s homes and cities. So yeah, it was just kind of a mission of mine over the past few years. So I said, we have to do a live stage show, and it’s funny because I think there’s something inherently theatrical about the world of Fraggle Rock and the music of Fraggle Rock. This is only our second year touring, and it’s amazing. If it seems fresh to you, it’s because it should.”
Turning imagination into reality has been a focus of Tartaglia’s career from the start.
“The thing that I love the most is that I come from the world of theater originally, and what I got to do with this show really involves a lot of my favorite collaborators from that world, some of whom work in television or film, but some who don’t,” he said. “So I really got the chance to bring in artists and friends and people I admire to collaborate with to make this happen. It takes a lot of skill sets, a lot of brilliant minds. It was just kind of like collaborating with really, really wonderful people and the best of what they do to make this happen. What I’m so appreciative of is that everyone working on the show, from our lighting designer to our sound designer to our set designer to the creature shop that built the puppets, no one ever said, ‘Oh, it’s just a kids’ show,’ or ‘Oh, it’s just a tour.’ They all treated it like this was a Broadway show, because we all care deeply about making really good theater for the whole family. For me, that was the most joyous part of it, getting to work with people I really love and really believe in as artists, and so we got to come together as a little family like the Fraggles and make this show some of the kids’ very first theatrical experience.”
Here again, there’s a bigger goal in mind. “We don’t make things that ever talk down to kids,” Tartaglia said. “Jim Henson was famous for that. You could watch his shows with your five-year-old kid, and grandma could watch it too. It was something for everybody, and we thought about that a lot with this show too. We said, let’s make something that a family can go to, and have this beautiful experience all together. There’s something for everybody in it.”
Tartaglia also had praise for everyone involved in the tour, both onstage and behind it. “What I admire about these performers is that they’re up to the challenge,” he said. “They really believe in the show, and they care deeply about the story of the characters. It’s what fuels them. The puppeteers are running around nonstop backstage, doing different things, grabbing different puppets, running back onstage, hiding behind things and making things happen. They’re all superstars. It’s a lot. It’s intense. They certainly sweat a lot. We have a joke that they’re all on the Fraggle workout diet because they’re just burning up calories and doing cardio basically every day for hours. That’s why they’re amazing. It takes a really special dedicated kind of performer to do this sort of work, and they really want to do it, and they’re really good at it. But the reaction that you get from the audience, knowing that you’re carrying on this incredible legacy of these characters and this brand, is so special.”
Clearly, the work resonates with Tartaglia himself.
“I think about this every day when I go to work,” he said. “I’m getting the chance to continue this amazing family of characters and the storytelling and everything that people love about what Jim Henson created and that incredible multigenerational appeal. If you think about the fact that ‘Sesame Street’ is over 55 years old, and the Muppets have been around over 70 years, you realize that it’s a privilege and a true responsibility to do this. You’re getting the chance to be the one to represent that legacy and carry it on. We feel that we have that responsibility to keep providing that level of entertainment, that level of quality, and that level of artistry that people expect when you see the name Jim Henson attached to it. Plus, watching a family with three or four different generations experiencing the same thing is just magic.”
What Tartaglia is doing today was born of a childhood dream.
“Well, funny enough, it actually was the original ‘Fraggle Rock’ series that did it,” he said. “I grew up with it. I found it by accident when I was about seven or eight years old, and I was like, ‘What is this?’ I grew up watching ‘Sesame Street.’ I loved everything about Henson and the Muppets, but there was something about the original ‘Fraggle Rock’ that just intrigued me as a kid. I was just enthralled by it. I remember the moment I realized, ‘Oh wait, people make this. It’s someone’s job to manipulate these characters and make them come to life.’ I told myself, ‘I want to do that!’ So now it’s very full circle and very surreal to get to oversee this particular brand because it was part of my childhood and it was my favorite thing. I really use that nerd information for good.”
In a way, he said, it was a kind of destiny. His mother was an actress, and his father was an art school director. “I grew up literally inside of a theater,” he said. “My earliest memories are sitting inside of a theater or going to a show. So I think that that part of my life and that part of my career — my theatrical side — was almost as if I was pretty much born into it. Puppetry kind of combines everything I love about performing. You get to sing, you get to dance, you get to act, you get to write your own stories, you get to make up your own shows, and there’s something very theatrical about it. And I think that’s why I love it so much.”
He’s been at it since he was a teenager. “I was very, very lucky,” he said. “I wrote a bunch of letters when I was younger. I wrote to Jim Henson and several of his colleagues, and I got invited to come meet him when I was 14. I got invited to audition, and I made it through, and then it was one of those things where there was a workshop back then and you get to the end and it’s like, ‘Thank you so much, and hopefully we’ll call you in for future work,’ and it was at a time when ‘Sesame Street’ was really expanding and there was a lot of puppetry happening, so they needed new puppeteers. I was very lucky to be asked to join when I was 16. I had my first day on ‘Sesame Street’ and started puppeteering there, and that’s how my career kind of took off. And then from there, I did other television series, and some Broadway shows. I just never stopped working with the company and wanting to be on this side of things too, on the more director, writer and producer side of things, and I’ve just been very, very lucky.”
Lucky? Perhaps. More likely it was talent — and passion — that took him to where he is today.
“I always say to people, I believe everything happens for a reason,” Tartaglia said. “I always kind of knew that this was my calling, and so I don’t know if I manifested it or what, but I’m very happy that it’s come to this. It’s not lost on me that this thing that I grew up with starting at seven years old and that inspired me so early on, I get to carry on. It’s very emotional if I think about it too much.”
If you go
What: “Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock Live”
When: 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 27
Where: Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre, Clayton Center for the Arts, Maryville College, 502 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville
How much: $41.55–$66.27
Run time: About 80 minutes, including a 20-minute intermission
Tickets: claytonartscenter.com
