So, who are the people in your neighborhood?  Bob never sings about them, but the people of Sesame Workshop always include the educational researchers and the script and songwriters.  Beyond the animation cels, drawings, media and the amazing experience of seeing the Muppets up close, the exhibition, "Somebody Come and Play,” lets us see and hear the way that research and entertainment/production values inform each other to create memorable moments.   And, since the 1970-1971 season, those moments have include Jeffrey Moss’ song “Who are the People in Your Neighborhood?”

One of the first research-advised decisions was to put Sesame Street into its urban setting.  The exhibition begins with an intensive look at the set and how the elements have changed to recognize sociological developments in cities and accommodate shifts in television technology.  A stop-time video shows how the well-known street set was dis-assembled and re-assembled when the show switched studios.  Technical drawings and photographs show the changes in buildings’ identities.  Hooper’s store became a bodega, for example.  It is said that the set design was inspired by the Upper West Side near the original television studio at Broadway and 81st St., but at last week’s public program on Sesame Street songwriting,  Lin-Manuel Miranda said that, as a child, he recognized his Washington Heights neighborhood in the set, which made him feel valued and included. 

In a table case between the aliens and Squirmy, we feature the lead sheet and theoretical basis of one of Sesame Street’s best-known songs.   The Statement of Instruction Goals for the 1970-1971 Experimental Season established the need for the song as part of a curriculum goal under Reasoning and Problem Solving: Social Groups and Institutions: the Neighborhood – "the Child is familiar with the social and physical boundaries of his own neighborhood.”  (Educational theory uses a lot of capital letters.)  It also exemplified the technique of “conversational use of visual clues” to establish categories and distinguishing within the category, as described in the Parents/Teachers Guide for that season.  The original version featured Bob McGrath and two Anything Muppets donning hats to become a postman and fireman.  Typically, the scene includes bantering between Bob and the AMs.  When Bob proffers a sack as the distinguishing feature of a postman, the AM wants it to mean Santa Claus.  When he demurs, the AM challenges him with “what’s wrong with Santa Claus?”   Later versions of the song, on dentists, teachers, bus drivers, life guards, pilots and nurses, include female AMs to emphasize non-gendered employment.  They have not featured Curators so far, but maybe next season... 

“Somebody Come and Play” is open through January 31.  Please come.

Songwriters Lin-Manuel Miranda and Tom Kitt, with reporter Michael Schulman, look at the case of lead sheets. Photograph by Evan Leslie.