Fantastic Mr Fox - a musical?

Me and my sister, Fern, last night went to the Theatre Royal Norwich to semi celebrate her birthday, but also for me to review the new touring production of Roald Dahl’s classic, Fantastic Mr Fox. Prior to the theatre we had some chicken at Nando’s, a glass of wine at the Lamb Inn and bought some sunglasses and dresses at Primark (for her of course not me). It was super nice to have some sisterly brotherly quality time, never get enough of that unfortunately. This new stage adaptation of the classic children’s story was co-produced by Leicester’s Curve and the Nuffield in Southampton where it had its premiere over the most recent Christmas period. It has since started its tour this February and planning to end in July at the Lowry, Salford although more dates are rumoured to be announced.

Sam Holcoft is the adapter of this Dahl classic which sees a cunning fox and his mischievous ways, hunting out to get the better of three farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean, to steal their lovely chickens, turkeys and ducks (and possibly some cider, why not!) in order to feed his family and his friends, Badger, Mouse, Mole and Rabbit. I am not overly clear on how different the stage adaptation is from the book as I cannot remember it in its entirety. However the story has a lovely moral tone to it of everyone has their individual talent, no matter how big or small, strong or obvious that may be and friends and family are really important people. This is a such an important message to get over to children from an early age, and Dahl has captured it within this simple yet effective story. Arthur Darvill is the composer and lyricist, with lyrics also by Holcroft, al Muriel and Darren Clark. This new music has been used to help tell the story of these forest creatures and it’s not too bad. Although the music I don’t think will be in my head in the next few weeks I did enjoy some of the songs. I liked the rabbit’s song about her own rabbit with an adult flavour for the parents, the finale to act one was really good and the ending was great. The only thing is I cannot find out what the songs were called so I am unable to tell you all which I songs I liked and which I didn’t.

This production of Fantastic Mr Fox is very much aimed and written for a child audience. When you hear of a Roald Dahl classic being transformed to the stage you think of Charlie and the Chocolate Factor or Matilda and you get incredibly excited and when you see them your blown away. I was not blown away by this production but it was still good. I think it was much harder to transform this story due to animals and there aren’t many musicals which have a pure animal character list, and even less which are successful (…… Cats, Lion King – let me know I am bound to be wrong and missing an absolute classic J). It does sometimes feel like you are in the audience of a children’s programme, albeit a really fun children’s TV programme. But I guess this is not a bad thing really is it? unless you are two adults in an audience with no children.

I was impressed by the cast and I am sure I recognised a couple of them – not sure as they were dressed as animals, kind of. I think my favourite character and cast member award has to be given to two people. Richard Atwill who plays Farmer Bean as well as the rat was fabulous. His two characters were very different and he plays them both so well, with a great singing voice. His camp-ish drunken rat was awesome and his crazy farmer, obsessed with killing the fox is scary. Joint favourite was Rabbit, played by Sandy Foster. She was really funny, had a fantastic voice (there was someone at the end of act 1 who hit a real stunning note I think it was her, if not it was mouse). I liked that the small intimate band were also birds in this production and had a dual responsibility; this is always something I enjoy. Richie Hart heads them up as musical director, with Anna Fordham and Patrick Burbridge. There were four of them though. Maybe it was an ensemble member. Greg Barnett plays Mr Fox and he was great. There was an element of the rum tum tugger from cats about him, I am not sure if this was deliberate or unintentional or a coincidence. Lille Flynn plays Mrs Fox and again I liked her musical numbers with on-stage husband Barnett. And their on-stage baby, Kit, is played by Jade Croot, who my sister thought was really good. Although her strong Welsh accent didn’t really fit with her parents accents. Gruffudd Glyn plays Mole and Farmer Bunce, and again a welsh accent comment, I found him very much like Rob Brydon on stage, I don’t know why but I really liked him in his role. The Mouse is played by Kelly Jackson. I loved her little poem and song about cheese, I thought the lyrics and construction of the song were very good. Edward Hole played Badger and Farmer Boggis in this production, and I thought he was a good replacement although the funniest thing was that he had the surname hole and the whole show is about animals living in holes.

I thought the set was cleverly designed. I liked the use of levels and bringing the forest to the large stage was very well achieved. I did feel there was some copying of the Cats set with the use of rubbish and litter to be used as props and furniture, but I can’t really hold that against them, Cats is amazing. Tom Scutt also designed the costumes as well as the set. I thought the costumes were very imaginative and modern; a really original idea. Instead of typical fury animals, the animal costumes described their personalities I think. A sporty rabbit, a mining fox family, a referee badger, another sort of mining mechanic mole. I am not entirely sure what the mouse was supposed to be, maybe a teacher? Super impressed by that idea. All this directed by Maria Aberg with Ayse Tashkiran on movement – I have to say I wasn’t too impressed with the movement or dancing, this was very children’s TV gone poor.

Fantastic Mr Fox would be a great musical, show for children to see. I think it is a great show to start that musical fan career in our next generation. I have to say it is not going to make my top 25, but I am pleased to have been given the opportunity to see such a show. I liked some of the music and lyrics and would listen to them again. The story is not the most magical or interesting but it is a classic and it holds a really strong morality which is very important. I wish the rest of the tour luck as it visits Bradford and Salford, and I think more dates were due to be released soon. The show is at The Norwich Theatre Royal until Saturday. There are shows at 10:30am tomorrow and Saturday, with a 7pm tomorrow night and a 2:30 matinee on Saturday. Next week you’ve got Funny Girl at the Theatre Royal with tickets still available. See you soon guys. Get in touch on twitter @AaronBurgess89.