Disney's Jungle Book Kids

You could feel the atmosphere the moment you walked into the college, the foyer was full of excited mums, dads, grandparents and friends eagerly awaiting to see Murton Theatre Group Youth’s production of Jungle Book Kids and what a surprise that was awaiting for them in this vibrant young cast. The Lubetkin theatre was the perfect size for this well-known Disney production and well done to Colin Abraham, Brian Hardy and members of Murton Theatre Group for the set design it looked fantastic. This year’s production was in the hands of a new Director, Rachel Smith who should feel really proud of herself, as her enthusiasm and creative flair certainly shone through especially in the choreography, commitment and the individual performance of each cast member on stage, well done Rachel.

The colourful jungle set was enhanced with the vibrancy of the costumes and the opening scene paved the way to what was to be a very polished performance. The part of Mowgli was played by two confident young actors, on the night that I saw the performance the role was in the hands of Harris Miller who gave a sterling performance very confident great stage presence some very confident dance moves and worked well with rest of the cast. I also had the opportunity to see Molly Coulson in the role of Mowgli on another performance and gave an equally sterling performance.

Bagheera was played by Amelia Lambert with good stage presence and a confident singing voice. An excellent performance from Grace Fitzakerly as Baloo with again good stage presence and confident singing - I loved the face paint and characterisation. The explosive King Louis was played by Sam J Scott, he certainly lifted the energy on stage - a real natural performer, good characterisation, excellent costum and delivered his musical number “I wan’na be like you” with such passion.

Sheer Khan was played by Georgia Rutherford as she provided us with the “Baddy” role very confidently on stage with a lovely singing voice. Colonel Hathi was played by Joshua Baker with good stage presence and ensured that he controlled his parade of elephants with professional elegance especially Maysie Surtees who played the part of the baby elephant great style for such a young person as well as being able to keep up with all the choreography - a real natural. Kaa was in the capable hands of Lily Dixon, Josie Littlewood and Erin Usher again these young performers give a good performance and worked well with the rest of the cast.

There were some good choreographed scenes involving the vultures played by Emily Bell, Evie Miller, Rosie Symonds and Mia Stewart.
Lillie Canning, Sophie Edmonton–Kelly, Hope Grey, Emily Holmes and Faye Stewart provided us with the ensemble of jungle monkeys and Elephants. Well done to everyone I particularly enjoyed the whole cast’s interpretation of “Wanna be like you”” and judging from the applause at the end of the production it was apparent that everyone had enjoyed this fantastic production. Well Done to Murton Theatre Group for nurturing these talented youngsters.

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