The Jungle Book
Production: The Jungle Book
Venue: Grand Opera House, York
Rating: **
Since the phenomenal success of the Lion King musical, it was perhaps inevitable that the Jungle Book would be hastily re-arranged for the theatre. However, it was never going to be easy to produce a stage production of a seminal text, blighted as it is by the fame of a wonderfully enjoyable, though factually awful, cartoon reproduction of Kipling’s original. ‘Where is King Louie?’, the ill-informed audience would cry. ‘Why didn’t Colonel Hampi appear on stage?’, the Disney fans would bemoan.
Instead, what the York Opera House were presented with was a strange melange of the original moral tale and an all-singing, all-dancing jamboree, which ultimately failed to achieve either extreme. I devoured an entire bag of Jelly Babies during the interval in an attempt to achieve the sugar high that was obviously a pre-requisite for enjoyment, but only felt mildly nauseous by the painful, cabaret conclusion.
Baloo, Kipling’s wise counsel, and Disney’s bumbling, fun-loving companion was both awfully written and cast. Typically, the most-loved of the story’s characters, it was unfortunate that he looked and acted like he’d had a John Smiths too many the night before. It was unclear whether his Peter Kay-style accent was for the Northern audience’s benefit, but when he took the baby Mowgli in his arms, audience members of voting age looked warily towards his dishevelled appearance.
Mowgli sung confidently and impressively, though looked uncomfortable in his loincloth – especially in the ‘serious’ scenes with his human mother, ruined as they were with atmospheric music and hideous over-acting. Tabaqui the jackal, a character who does not appear in the Disney version, excelled in his mischevious role, dominating the stage at every opportunity. Unfortunately, most of the engaged audience had no idea how he fitted into the Bare Necessities.
This problem characterised the entire play. Aside from the impressive staging, perhaps the best I’ve seen at the Opera House this season, and the accomplished physical theatre aspects that the animal characters showed, this production suffered from an identity crisis.
When the directors abandoned their desire to draw from Kipling’s tale of humanity and community, the toilet humour and audience participation was commendable. However, when the pantomime was hastily dragged into the realm of seriousness, the actors were found lacking, and the audience – earlier happy to giggle at Baloo’s obesity and flatulence – turned back to their sweets and lemonade.
The Jungle Book showed at the Grand Opera House, York, from Tuesday 24th February to Saturday 28th February
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