Book and lyrics by Willie Reale. Music by Robert Reale. Directed by Carole Higgins. A Carousel Theatre production. At the Waterfront Theatre on Saturday, April 17. Continues until May 8

What a treat. It’s great to see theatre for extremely young audiences done so masterfully.

Based on Arnold Lobel’s classic stories, A Year With Frog and Toad celebrates the simple pleasures that accompany each season: planting a garden, going swimming, baking and eating cookies, riding a toboggan. Frog and Toad have their differences, but the strength of their friendship sustains them through the bumpy bits.

The first of director Carole Higgins’s successes in this production is her impeccable casting. Todd Talbot’s Frog sparkles with effusive good cheer, and Talbot hops energetically throughout the show, seemingly without breaking a sweat. Allan Zinyk’s performance as the gently curmudgeonly Toad is charming and always inventive. Zinyk’s strengths are on full display in an early scene in which Toad plants a garden, nearly collapses from the “effort” of sprinkling seeds on the ground, yells impatiently at the seeds to grow, then feels sorry and does a wacky interpretive dance performance—complete with tuba solo—to urge them on.

Darren Burkett, Kaylee Harwood, and Janet Gigliotti play an assortment of other animals, and under Gordon Roberts’s musical direction, they sing Robert Reale’s complex tunes in superb three-part harmony. Burkett shines as Snail, who’s been entrusted by Frog to deliver a letter (after Frog moistens the envelope’s seal on his slimy stomach); “I put the go in escargot,” he boasts, vowing to make good speed. Harwood and Gigliotti are also strong in their multiple roles, beautifully mimicking the physical gestures of birds, squirrels, and moles.

The show looks fantastic, too. Hei-di Wilkinson’s spacious set is bright, colourful, and full of witty flourishes, like the amphibian American gothic painting that hangs on Frog’s wall. Yulia Shtern’s costumes are gorgeous (Turtle wears a brocade coat and big red glasses), as well as clever (Snail is dressed as a cowboy with a bedroll on his back). And Frog and Toad’s costumes echo their personalities: Frog is dapper, Toad is always just a little bit frumpy.

This warm-hearted show will be a first experience of theatre for a lot of toddlers. I have a feeling they’ll be back for more.