A one-night-only semi-staged reading of the musical The Little Frog Who Couldn’t Jump Too Good was recently held at London’s The Other Palace, offering a sold-out audience a glimpse of the show as it continues to develop.
The evening opened with some words from the show’s team, Max Cadman (creator, writer and lyricist), Rachel Blaquière (composer) and Ewan Hawkins (director and dramaturg), who offered some insight into the ideas and inspiration behind the show and its creative process.
Cadman shared a funny story about his time working on a children’s theatre show and how, despite it providing the original inspiration for The Little Frog Who Couldn’t Jump Too Good, the piece soon became a show that was not aimed at children! Hawkins said he hoped the audience would “find it as funny as we do still”, but also recognised that the show “has got a lot of heart”.
Once the performance began, the charismatic cast members quickly got into character. Charlie Edinburgh notified the audience of his role with a shirt reading ‘Pretend I’m a Snail’.
The whole cast performed the opening number, ‘Amphibian City’, before running through the entirety of Act I. It featured full renditions of songs, with pieces of dialogue thrown in between, while skipped sections were explained by Hawkins. Despite not being a fully staged production, there was also some fantastically funny insight into plans for the show’s choreography, including paper puppets and signs announcing a dance break with tap-dancing tadpoles.
The show was full of accents, innuendos and amazing vocals, and certainly had the audience laughing throughout. It featured a range of songs, from an incredible rap/hip-hop performance of ‘Kenny’s Song’ by a boastful toad, played by Cadman, which brought so much energy to the room, to a fabulous duet from Lauren Jones and Sam Baumal, playing Ophelia and Larry the Frog, as they shared a heartfelt journey full of encouragement – a noticeably blooming romance.
There was also Francine, Larry’s older sister, whose hilarious voice and delivery brought a wonderfully familiar, almost TV sitcom-esque, older sister energy to the show. As much as the show felt humorous, the close-knit relationships of the characters gave the piece a warm and intimate feel amidst the comedy.
Act II wasn’t shown in full, with sections deliberately held back to avoid spoiling the plot’s ending. It featured some more great numbers and jokes, while giving further insight into the characters’ individual stories and journeys. The night’s performance ended with an incredible vocal performance of ‘Lilypads’ from Jones.
Three of the show’s demo songs are currently available to stream on Spotify.
From the minute the cast stepped onto the stage, the room was filled with energy, and you could feel the passion for the project from everyone involved. This show is definitely one to watch out for as it continues to find its feet.
Libby O’Connell
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