Cool 'School'!

The performers are wrapping up the show, but the crowd is getting antsy.

They have heard most of their favorite numbers -- songs such as "Verb: That's What's Happening," "A Noun Is A Person, Place or Thing" and "Unpack Your Adjectives" -- but there's just one more hit song, one more grammatical lesson, that needs to be covered.

You see, this is no ordinary live rock show -- this is " Schoolhouse Rock Live!"

"What are we leaving out?" the cast asks facetiously.

"Conjunctions!" a member of the audience screams with abandon, as if he were calling out for "Freebird."

Sure enough, the singers launch into "Conjunction Junction."

"It happens every time," confides Amber Gainey, cast member and company manager of "Schoolhouse Rock Live!" a stage version of the beloved "Schoolhouse Rock!" educational cartoons aired by ABC a generation ago.

Those Emmy award-winning TV cartoons have been adapted into a live musical version that is finding acclaim among Gen-X audiences that remember it well, and children discovering it for the first time. Now on its second tour -- a three-month, 60-city visit hitting the West coast for the first time -- the production will stop in Las Vegas Saturday for a one-night-only show at the Cashman Field Theater.

The show tells the "story" of a just-out-of-the-academy teacher named Tom who uses the "Schoolhouse Rock!" numbers as inspiration for how to teach his students. The storyline is clearly a stretch, an excuse to tie the songs into one forum. But never mind: There's only seven minutes of dialogue anyway, leading into 21 toe-tapping numbers that the audience has come to see and hear.

The original "Schoolhouse Rock!" classics aired from 1973-1985 between episodes of "Super Friends" and "Josie and the Pussycats." Using sing-along lyrics, they covered basic lessons of grammar, math, science and history in three-minute animated features, creating such songs as " I'm Just A Bill," "Three Is A Magic Number," "My Hero, Zero," "Interjections" and "The Preamble."

It all began when an advertising executive noticed that his 11-year-old son couldn't memorize his multiplication tables -- but had no trouble singing the lyrics to any rock song he liked. The resulting idea -- combining catchy music and lyrics with evergreen educational material -- was born.

As a result, anyone who grew up in that era can probably sing the entire preamble to the Constitution on demand ("We the people ...") or recite the process of a bill becoming law ("I'm just a bill, Yes I'm only a bill, and I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill ...").

The notion to transform the cartoons to the live theater is credited to Northwestern University alum Scott Ferguson, who began bugging ABC to allow him to take the timeless lessons and reshape them for the stage.

"This became an obsession for Scott," Gainey, who plays Shulie in the six-member cast's current tour, says. "He spent three years in contact with ABC to get to rights to even touch it. He harassed them until they said 'fine.' "

Following its 1993 debut in the basement of a trendy Chicago cafe (which this reporter attended), the show evolved into an off-Broadway New York production, and has since spawned not only the tours, but several local productions around the country and a Canadian version, as well.

In 1996, an album called "Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks" was released, featuring covers by modern-day rock bands such as Blind Melon, Ween, Better Than Ezra and The Lemonheads. Gainey says she generally prefers the original tunes to those versions, but applauds the effort. "If it brings (the lessons to) the middle school students of today, and in a musical style they can appreciate," she says with a shrug, "more power to them."

Perhaps most notably, the original cartoons are back, airing Saturday mornings on ABC for a new generation. "It became a big publicity moneymaker for (ABC) to have this flashback," Gainey says, pointing out that "Schoolhouse Rock!" merchandise has suddenly become available in hip stores such as Urban Outfitters.

Jonathan Barzilay, senior vice president of children's programming for ABC, credits the first resurgence of "Schoolhouse Rock!" with a clip at the beginning of the slacker film "Reality Bites."

"We're pleased to have them," he says of the cartoons. "They're nostalgic for parents and still (entertaining) for kids." Barzilay says the shorts have been airing for the past few years and will continue indefinitely, helping the network fulfill the Federal Communication Commission's "educational mandate" for children's programming.

In a display of pop culture symmetry with ABC's re-airing, a new audience of children has been created -- for the stage show. "They're not remembering the songs from their childhood, they're still in it," Gainey notes.

The show manages to plays on a dual level to both audiences.

There is the straight-up children's theater version that still tours Chicago schools, and what cast members have affectionately dubbed the "Mall Tour" -- an abreviated version sent out to festivals, pageants "like Miss Watermelon Patch," Gainey bemoans, and yes, malls.

Only slight adjustments are made for the children's version. "It's not condescending," Gainey emphasizes. " Scott (Ferguson, who directs) was particular about not dumbing down the show."

Similarly, the night-time Gen-X version, which plays to college students, and 20- and 30-somethings who grew up watching the animated vignettes, isn't played particularly campy or kitchy, Gainey says.

But the lyrics are slightly more risque after the sun goes down. For example, in the daytime version, a character exits with a flip warning to the new teacher: "Don't let the metal detectors scare you." In the evening, though, the crowd of young adults roar to the line: "Remember, poppy seeds can give you a false positive."

Why the sustained popularity among fans? "It's hysterical, the material is light and witty," Gainey notes, pointing to the talent of writers such as Lynn Ahrens, who went on to win a Tony award in 1998 for her lyrics to the Broadway hit "Ragtime." "I've been in shows where the cast (members) roll their eyes when its time to sing some cheesy thing," she adds. "We never sit here and go, 'Oh God, it's time to sing Interplanet Janet.' "

Even learning the show was a breeze. "It was weird how much of this material was buried in our memory," she says. "It was an easy show to learn because we all grew up with these songs. I didn't have to study my lyrics -- it was buried in my mind."

That holds true for attendees as well. "Everybody can sing 'I'm Just A Bill,' " Gainey says with a laugh. "We have audiences singing along. It's this nice flashback for them. I think a lot of people are looking for things that remind (them) of younger, easier times. It's a dual experience -- they think, 'It's a great show and it reminded me of that time I was eating Jello Pudding pops.' "

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