Monday, November 2 was Millennial date night at The Wilbur theatre as the 90s kids showed up to celebrate thirty years of Hey Arnold! Composer Jim Lang brought along his band, The PS 118 All Stars for a live performance of the beloved cartoon’s unforgettable soundtrack.
The show began appropriately with the Hey Arnold! theme song, for a quick shot of nostalgia for the overwhelmingly Generation Y crowd. The soundtrack that served as the emotional underpinning of the quirky, yet heartfelt animated show was a strong draw, as evinced by the sold-out Wilbur Theatre. Composer Jim Lang and the four-piece PS 118 All Stars performed a variety of songs from the soundtrack, with a heavy emphasis on the jazzier, bluesier, funkier tracks that fit so well with the urban American setting of the cartoon. There were some out-of-left-field songs that made it into the set however, and Lang brought out a heavy-hitter for those. Craig Bartlett, the creator of Hey Arnold! came out to perform vocals for the honky-tonk track “The Simple Things” and the swing song by fictional crooner Dino Spumoni, “Smashed.”
Before the concert wound down with the end credits song “Stompin’” Jim Lang revealed some lore about the Hey Arnold! soundtrack. He informed the audience that he once lived in Boston and happened to be acquainted with Donny Rosenberg, son of Dunkin’ Donuts founder William Rosenberg. Lang admitted that he wrote a jingle for Dunkin’ Donuts that he never found the courage to pitch, but a modified version of that jingle would live on to become the Hey Arnold! theme song.
When the concert ended, Jim Lang, Craig Bartlett, and The PS 118 All Stars were rewarded with a standing ovation from a grateful audience. Fans filtered out onto the sidewalk, some dressed like Helga Pataki, and at least two others in the banana and strawberry costumes worn by Arnold and Gerald in Season one, Episode one: Downtown As Fruits. An overheard review of the evening’s event rang true: “Genuinely a good show; not just nostalgia!” Who could have any qualms about that?
Check out the rest of Greg’s photos below.
