This children’s show is inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book stories but given a modern twist. It features a small cast and original songs by Paul Norton. The three main characters are Mowgli the wolf-boy (now all grown up and living in the city), his former teacher Baloo the bear (contemplating a move to the city himself) and the resident jungle bad-guy the Jackal.
This is an energetic show with lots of opportunities for the audience to sing along and get involved but something about it just left me a bit cold. The music was quite good, the performers were all talented but it was lacking some soul and I can’t help but feel it cheapened the Jungle Book experience. There wasn’t a strong enough narrative to keep the story moving, not enough humour to keep us laughing and too many cheap shots at entertaining the kids (when all else fails the bear can just turn around and wiggle his bum at the audience – yawn!)
And I must add that this was the worst audience of the festival so far. Parents and kids were pushing to get in (there are plenty of good seats in The Athenaeum – calm down), couples bickered loudly and all sorts of tricks were utilised to jump the queue.
Jungle Book – The Concert Show is more like a really good shopping centre school holiday pantomime than a full-on concert. There are lots of other options within the comedy festival program for high quality family entertainment. This is best suited for pre-school kids who have been raised on a diet of High 5.
My kids didn’t love it:
Iris (6): The Jackal was cool because he looked weird. It wasn’t that funny though.
Jasper (6): It was weird, the show was weird, and the characters were weird. I wouldn’t see it again.
Violet (9): It was musical but better for littler kids.
Indigo (12): The kids under six seemed to enjoy it but for the rest of us it was basically an hour of boredom.
For full details visit the Melbourne Comedy Festival website