Michelle Lewis & Charlton Pettus Interview

Kindergarten is a big life step for any kid. For many, it’s their first time away from home and their parents, it’s when they learn the alphabet and it’s when they get to experience making friends for the first time.

That’s why the formative year was the inspiration behind Disney‘s freshly released series, Kindergarten: The Musical, which follows the story of 5-year-old Berti and her new friends as they navigate life at school. “We were all kids once,” one of the show’s creators and executive producers, Michelle Lewis, tells Billboard.

Her fellow series creator and executive producer, Charlton Pettus, agrees. “We’re both parents. Real kids are so much more interesting than most people. We’re telling super fun stories about people we know extraordinarily well, having raised bunches of them.”

Lewis and Pettus are longtime co-creatives, as they worked as producers, songwriters and musicians for decades. Lewis is a two-time Emmy Award winner who has written for Cher, Amy Grant, Little Mix and more. She’s also worked on a number of animated children’s shows, including Doc McStuffins, Vampirina and Bubble Guppies.

Since 2000, Pettus has been a touring guitarist, producer and cowriter for Tears for Fears, and has also worked with artists including Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan and Selena Gomez. However, Kindergarten: The Musical marks his first time working on a television show. “It’s so much better,” he says of working in television. “In the darkest days of pop songwriting, [Lewis and I] were in that period where the mission was to write songs that sounded like they were about something, but assiduously avoided ever actually being about something. So, I think we got a little burnt on the chase.”

He noted that “TV and film seemed much more fun, so we started dabbling in that,” before adding, “We had a couple shows we were trying to pitch. Kindergarten came up as a back pocket pitch. We thought it was clever and kind of fun. As as we went out in the world and talked to people, this was the one that that people reacted to.”

However, music is hardly left on the back burner on Kindergarten: The Musical, as the name suggests. Lewis calls the series a “love letter to music” and its unifying nature. “We have a song called ‘I Want to Go Home’ in the show,” she says as an example. “It’s about being in school and they miss home, they miss their dog, whatever. What would seem like a tiny moment, for a little kid is actually a big moment, and big enough for them to sing. I hope that the show makes kids feel seen and heard, celebrated and comfortable with expressing those things, those fears and anxieties and joys and all that stuff through music.”

Pettus concludes, “Why do songs make us cry? Because we recognize ourselves. It resonates. I think we just want to do the same thing with kids. We want them to recognize themselves, see themselves, and see that it works out, that it’s all okay.”

Kindergarten: The Musical is available to watch on Disney Jr. and Disney+. Check out a clip of the song, “First Day,” exclusively via Billboard below.