Mark Houston in Chocolate Cake at the Polka Theatre, London. Picture: Ellie Kurttz
Chocolate Cake continues at the Polka Theatre, London until 13 May 2018.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
Michael Rosen’s Chocolate Cake (to give this 50-minute show its full title) is a scrumptious if slightly bonkers children’s musical at the delightful Polka Theatre which has been doing this sort of thing since 1979.
The music, and nine calorifically jaunty songs to Rosen’s poem, have been provided by renowned cabaret singer-songwriter Barb Jungr.
Jungr is having a busy month, what with Liver Birds Flying Home also opening at Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre this week (13 April), a show for which she has written the lyrics and co-written the book.
She said: “It’s important that we put on something that will entertain the parents and grandparents too as without them bringing the children along, we don’t have an audience.”
She and director Peter Glanville, who co-adapted Rosen’s work for the stage, certainly achieved that and it was significant that the two grandchildren I brought along, age seven and ten, were singing the title song as we walked back to Wimbledon station.
They also persuaded their mother to buy the ingredients so they could make their own chocolate cake, the recipe for which was obligingly draped over two pages of the programme. The mind boggles at the mess in the kitchen the following morning.
Asked what he thought of the show, the seven-year-old just said “extraordinary” because he likes using long words to show how clever he is.
While the 10-year-old gave a big thumbs-up to Verity Quinn’s colourful set, particularly the upright bed into which Michael (Mark Houston) flops after nicking and stuffing himself with the giant cake his Mum had made for brother Joe’s birthday.
Mum (Aminita Francis) is a prize-winning cook whose victory is celebrated in the ‘Bake Off’ song and the cake is some creation. We were lucky to sample a mini-version of it before the show.
ArtsEd graduate Houston has a good voice and ‘I’m Sorry’ is his tuneful apology for being so naughty and spoiling the party. Luckily there is enough time for Mum to instruct woe-begone Michael on how to make a replacement.
Todd Heppenstall completes the cast of three as Joe, later putting on a silly moustache to do a cameo role as an Inspector. They all sing well and a good time is had by all in a show the ten-year-old thought was a bit young for her and more suited to five-to-eights.
Jeremy Chapman
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.