JUST SO. To 25 September.
Chichester
JUST SO
by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe
Chichester Festival Theatre In rep to 25 September 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Thu & Sat 2pm also Sun 15,29 August 4pm
Audio-described 9 July, 31 July 2pm, 4 September 2pm, 25 September 2pm
BSL Signed 24 June 7.30pm
Runs 2hr 30min One interval
TICKETS: 01243 781312
www.cft.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 June
A pleasant musical and a tremendous show.If every review of this revised, zippy version of Stiles and Drewe's 1990 Kipling collection were negative, it would still sell out on its title, yes, but also on word of mouth. The audience clearly loved it. Not with the dreadful enthusiasm of a friends' and agents' first night, but showing sheer, simple joy. Time and time again.
With Richard Dempsey's loveably vulnerable Young Elephant displaying youth's positive determination to sort out the world's problems, our sympathy's soon established. His enthusiasm is marvellously offset by his reluctant travelling companion, Julie Atherton's bespectacled Kolokolo Bird, a down-to-earth Northerner with attitude. They're off, in the musical's framing device, to sort out the Crab, a sullen loner grown big by intimidation, and suitably presented as a featureless shell of multiple bin-lids flanked by giant snapping scissors - till he's eventually brought down to size.
Anthony Drewe's production is speedy and visually inventive. Crab apart, there's Steve Elias as a cook's stove with hot ambitions to be a fridge, Nicolas Colicos as a lumpy, crumpy Rhino, and Andrew Spillett's athletic Kangaroo with inflatable haunches. For along the way to the Limpopo come a selection of Mr Kipling's exceedingly good explanations of how animals' physical characteristics originated.
These often come down to camouflage, suitably enough given Kipling's Law of the Jungle, which crops up here. As with the brazen Essex Girl' Giraffe (Alexis Owen-Hobbs, guarded but loud) and Zebra (Akiya Henry, infectiously cheerful). They're fleeing Dean Hussain's Jaguar and Simon Greiff's Leopard, a cartoon villain duo all stylised movement and slow uptakes - both clear Friday night sexual predators. The bland Wildebeest are surely a slur on Bairmingam. Junix Inocian presides, a calm, watchful presence among the mayhem, leaving the creatures to discover their individualities.
It's not a great musical; there's a sickly voice-over start, plus regulation inspiration, aspiration and serried ranks of gleaming white teeth alongside the pulse-pumping harmonies. The songs rattle along, often upbeat, with pleasant, sometimes near-memorable melodies, all entertaining with high efficiency throughout. The whole confection of dance, colour, design and terrific performances should keep Chichester humming through the summer.
Eldest Magician: Junix Inocian
Elephant's Child: Richard Dempsey
Kolokolo Bird: Julie Atherton
Parsee: Ahmet Ahmet
Stove: Steve Elias
Rhino: Nicolas Colicos
Giraffe: Alexis Owen-Hobbs
Zebra: Akiya Henry
Jaguar: Dean Hussain
Leopard: Simon Greiff
Wildebeest: Helen Goldwyn
Kangaroo: Andrew Spillett
Dingo: Daniele Coombe
Director: Anthony Drewe
Designer: Peter McKIntosh
Season Installation Designer: Alison Chitty
Lighting: Jeff Croiter
Sound: Paul Arditti
Musical Director/Additional Orchestration: David Shrubsole
Orchestrations: Christopher Jahnke
Associate Orchestrator: John Clancy
Dance Captain: Steve Elias
Assistant director: Nik Ashton
Assistant designer: David Farley
2004-06-19 02:29:39