'Schoolhouse Rock! Live' show to feature music of area jazz great

• "Schoolhouse Rock Live!" a stage musical based on music from the 1970s-1990s Saturday morning TV series, will open Friday at Historic Castle Inn in Delaware Water Gap
• It features music written by the late longtime Poconos resident Bob Dorough
• Dorough wrote and performed such songs as "Three is a Magic Number" and "My Hero Zero"

DELAWARE WATER GAP, Pa. — A stage play based on music from the 1970s to 1990s Saturday morning “Schoolhouse Rock” animated series – much of it written by late Lehigh Valley-area resident Bob Dorough – is set to open Friday.

The musical “Schoolhouse Rock Live!,” inspired by the Emmy Award-winning Saturday morning cartoon series that taught math, grammar, history and more through song, will be performed by the School of Visual Performing Arts in Delaware Water Gap.

Shows will be 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17, at the Historic Castle Inn, 20 Delaware Ave., Delaware Water Gap.

Tickets, at $22 each, are available through the school’s website.

Dorough, who died in his Mount Bethel home at age 94 in 2018, was the primary composer for the original “Schoolhouse Rock.” He wrote or performed several of its most popular tunes, including “Three is a Magic Number,” “Zero My Hero” and “Figure Eight.”

All of those are featured in the stage show, along with at least six others Dorough wrote, performed or both.

A jazz great who played with musical giants such as Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie and wrote a Mel Torme hit during his nearly 70-year career, Dorough was born in Arkansas and raised in Texas, but lived more than half his life in the Poconos area, where he frequently performed.

A renowned jazz musician

Dorough was renowned as a bebop and jazz pianist. He recorded his compositions “Nothing Like You” and “Blue Xmas” with Miles Davis in 1962. That same year his song “Comin’ Home Baby” was a Top 40 hit in 1962 for Torme, who received two Grammy Award nominations for it.

At local shows, Dorough told stories of being a contemporary of many jazz giants, such as how he stole the title of his song “To Be or Not to Bop” from jazz trumpet great Dizzy Gillespie.

“I used to hang out a little bit with Dizz,” Dorough once said at a local show. “That’s when I could stay up late.”

Dorough released two dozen albums, the last being “But For Now” with his Bob Dorough Trio, on a German label in 2015. The trio in 2017 released an album, “Live at the Deer Head Inn,” recorded at the famed jazz club in Delaware Water Gap.

As a Pennsylvania resident, he received the Governor’s Artist of the Year Award, and in 2002 his trio was chosen to represent the State Department and Kennedy Center as an Ambassador of Jazz and Blues.

In 2007, Dorough was honored by East Stroudsburg University, where he occasionally played, with an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.

“Schoolhouse Rocks Live!” kicks off the fall lineup of the School of Visual Performing Arts.

The plot follows a teacher, Tom, who is nervous for his first day of teaching. When he turns on “Schoolhouse Rock,” the characters come alive and help him prepare for his lesson. It also features popular songs including "I'm Just a Bill," "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly” and "Conjunction Junction."

The show’s musical director, Jazzy Thomas, said in a release, “this is a very special cast that features all ages. I’m hoping that the younger generation comes out to see the show and falls in love with ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ just like my mom did in the ‘70s and my brother and I did in the ‘90s.

“[It was] not only a great educational tool, but the music will stick with you for generations.”