Z’s school friend Hannah Hudson is performing in the South Valley Civic Theatre production of Disney’s The Jungle Book Kids at the Morgan Hill Community Playhouse, so we headed down for the opening performance.  Hannah is in the choir with Zaira at South Valley Middle School and plays both an elephant and a swinging monkey.

The show is based on the Disney film, so is full of its most familiar songs and is a lot of fun.  Twelve year old Jaime Walling does a superb job as Mowgli, the human child who wants to hang with the animals.  Mowgli is supposed to be watching and mimicing the animal’s movements, mannerism and attitutdes and young Walling presents this very well.  There were several other superb young actors, but since the program doesn’t list the characters played (in most cases) I unfortunately can’t share more of their names.

Loritte Bonfante Johnson, Beth Dewey, Glynis Crabb and Carol Harris did an amazing job on the set, really bringing the feel of the jungle to the Playhouse’s small stage. Terri Miles and Robin DeLeeuw also did a great job on the costumes. The rendition of Kaa, the Indian Python who threatens to dine on poor Mowgli, is pure genius, using six young girls of diminishing height, all dressed in shimmering green and white bodysuits and “chained” together so that they may slither and slide around the stage while stalking their prey.

Unfortunately the show does have its problems.  The sound system needs some work, alternating between feedback and near silence, the blocking is a bit rough, though this is a youth production and only the second live performance.  the shows main failing is its length.  Scheduled to start at 8pm (though ‘curtain up’ was a few minutes late tonight) we were out of the theater before 9:00 and there was a 20 minute intermission.  In and of itself this isn’t necessarily a problem – after all, the play is perfect for kids of all ages who may not be able to sit through a longer production.  However both my ticket and Zaira’s (who is 12) were $18 each.  That’s $36 for roughly a half-hour of actual entertainment.  The show is a blast, and I know there are bills to be paid, but I still felt ripped off and will be much more hesitant to attend another South Valley Civic Theatre without many more details in advance.

Disney’s Jungle Book Kids will continue to be performed each weekend through September with Fri & Sat shows at 8:00pm and Sunday matinees at 2:00pm.  The remaining performance dates are September 12, 13, 14, 19 and 20.  Tickets are advertised at $18 “regular”, $14 “Students and Seniors”, though if a 12 year old isn’t considered a student I’m not sure what the term means.

Zaira’s review can be found on her blog, Butterfly Diaries.