TONY AWARD WINNERS SING WITH THE MUPPETS

Playhouse Disney series Johnny and The Sprites has singing muppets and Tony winners John Tartaglia and Sutton Foster.

Tony award winners John Tartaglia of Avenue Q and Sutton Foster of The Drowsy Chaperone play brother and sister in the Playhouse Disney musical series Johnny and The Sprites. Set in a fantasy world these magical creatures known as sprites are brought to life by puppetry.

Sutton Foster who has made a career out of singing and dancing with humans says it was a joy to work with muppets.

“Most of the time you forget that this puppet is attached to a human because you are so transfixed on this incredible creature and this incredible character that you’re looking at. And they’re so expressive and they’re so real and they’re so alive in this world of animation and digital which I’m not pooh poohing. I grew up with the puppeteering, with the muppets, with Sesame Street. That’s what I grew up with and to be sharing the stage with a puppet and it’s puppeteers are enough to induce tears, it’s pretty magical.”

John is the creator, producer and star of the series playing a musician who lives next door to the Sprites and introduces them to his world through music. Like Avenue Q which conveyed the message of tolerance and acceptance, John hopes Johnny and The Sprites will do the same.

“The point of the show is to really promote understanding among ourselves. In this case it’s two different species but I think the message they will hopefully be getting is two different races, two different nationalities, two different religions. Whatever it needs to be. That we can all understand each other. In the show you really see me interact with the Sprites and learn about their world. I may not always understand it but I respect it. I find something to relate to and the same with my world too. You know the Sprites have never heard of telephone, the Sprites have never heard of pizza. You know all these things that we take for granted so kind of through music, through fun and hopefully a lot of laughter and through a lot of excitement we learn from each other’s worlds.”

The music was written by several notable Broadway show composers such as Stephen Schwartz who wrote Wicked and earned two academy awards for the music of Pocahontas which he scored with Alan Menkin. Johnny and The Sprites premieres Saturday on The Disney Channel.