Bear Week is a social gathering for gentleman homosexuals of the burly and hirsute variety, as well as those who enjoy their company).

(For the uninitiated: Provincetown is a town at the tip of Cape Cod with a storied LGBT history and present. I booked a room in a Provincetown B&B, the most affordable one I could find but more than I wanted to spend, after my Bear Week plans fell through. The curtains are ruffled, and the bedspread is patterned with seashells. The two of them are also framed on the wall next to the hobbit-like closet, and another framed print hangs between the windows.

There’s a stuffed Frog sitting next to a stuffed Toad on the bookshelf, their shoulders touching. I recommend sitting on the floor to read them but then, a lot of my job is sitting on a floor reading children’s books, so you might choose the armchair next to the window. It’s lined with Mouse Soup, Frog and Toad All Year, a story I didn’t know about an elephant. Next to the bed is a low wooden bookshelf. Where mothers put sick children to bed with cold compresses and bulb thermometers. The ceiling slants over the bed, the kind of bed you’d find in a picture book. Since Frog and Toad Together is very concerned with domesticity (tending to a garden, baking, keeping one’s life in some kind of order), let me tell you about this room. The Frog and Toad room in Howard’s End, the Provincetown bed and breakfast Howard would later own, is at least 26 years away. It is a perfect show to be performed by an ensemble group of actors and can be produced with either simple or extravagant staging and sets.Howard Weiner is still eight years away. The jazzy, upbeat score of A Year with Frog and Toad bubbles with melody and wit, making it an inventive, exuberant and enchanting musical for the whole family. Part vaudeville, part make believe. all charm, A Year with Frog and Toad tells the story of a friendship that endures throughout the seasons. The two best friends celebrate and rejoice in the differences that make them unique and special. Waking from hibernation in the Spring, Frog and Toad plant gardens, swim, rake leaves, go sledding and learn life lessons along the way. Based on Arnold Lobel's well-loved books, and featuring a hummable score by Robert and Willie Reale, this whimsical show follows two great friends – the cheerful, popular Frog and the rather grumpy Toad – through four fun-filled seasons. A hit on Broadway, A Year with Frog and Toad was nominated for three Tony Awards – including Best Musical.

Frog and toad all year