Jungle Book - The Musical.

Sometimes a production is so unexpectedly good that you almost fall out of your seat in surprise. Where did this beautiful adaptation of The Jungle Book come from? Full of great tunes, superb characterisation and laughs, surely it could not have been its first outing?

Ah there it was in the fine print. This adaptation has had 5000 performances through-out Europe. The royalties are still flowing back to the writer Marcus Weber to help him run his venue The King Street Theatre in Newtown.

The six and seven year olds in the audience were also falling out of their seat. Sometimes in excitement at the action on stage – other times to visit the bathroom.  

The procession to the toilet became so common that Maria de Marco as Bagheera the panther made it part of the act. Didn’t their teacher tell them to go before the show starts?

The characters were very memorable.

Mark Power as Baloo the bear was jolly and adept at picking flees from members of the audience. Mandy Fung looked hot as KAA the snake.

Bernard Wheatley as Shere Khan the tiger had a torso as a sharp as a claw. Brett O’Neill was a veritable jack in the box as the monkey King Louie. While Kyle Stephens as Hathi the elephant showed impressive skills on the trombone and Badaidilaga Maftuh-Flynn rounded out the production as the only human Mowgli.

There were lots of jungle-like plants on stage and ropes to swing off. This combined with a meet and greet in the foyer afterwards made it excellent school holiday entertainment.

David Spicer