Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 classic has been adapted in all available media and interpreted as just about everything from a piece of snobbish nostalgia to a socialist parable. Now it has been turned into a family musical by Julian Fellowes (book), George Stiles (music) and Anthony Drewe (lyrics) who previously worked together on Mary Poppins and Half a Sixpence. But, while they do a perfectly decent job and the result is harmlessly pleasant, I feel such a familiar story cries out for a big, original idea.
Alan Bennett brought his own distinctive touch to his 1990 National Theatre adaptation. He implied that there was a sexual battle going on down by the riverside, with Rat and Badger competing furiously for the affections of Mole, and that the weasels who take over Toad Hall were rampant property speculators seeking to build executive apartments. Other versions, notably an animated TV series in the 1980s with David Jason voicing Toad, have highlighted the mysticism that pervades the novel: never more apparent than in the chapter The Piper at the Gates of Dawn where Rat and Mole have a poetic encounter with Pan.
It is difficult, however, to find any strong personal vision behind this new musical. Fellowes seeks to banish the book’s air of bachelor clubbiness by giving us a Mrs Otter with an errant daughter called Portia. Stiles and Drewe also make a gesture to modern gender politics in a song, To Be a Woman, where the cross-dressed Toad announces: “I’m taking pride in my feminine side.” That is one of many good numbers, but the songs embrace such a variety of styles that the score lacks a definable character. We get nods to the English choral tradition, to Gilbert and Sullivan and Flanders and Swann, and even, in the Wild Wooders’ We’re Taking Over the Hall, to raucous rock. But I longed for that moment of pure ecstasy which the same team provided in Half a Sixpence with the heady Pick Out a Simple Tune.
If there is a theme to this show, it lies in the Edwardian discovery of speed – and Peter McKintosh’s design allows us to share Toad’s transports of delight as he steals open-topped sports cars and escapes his pursuers in an onrushing steam train.
Rachel Kavanaugh’s production itself moves pretty fast and contains some good performances. A green-haired Rufus Hound captures the bumptious likability of Mr Toad, Gary Wilmot lends Badger a ramrod-backed military air as well as a cautious mix of belt and braces, and Neil McDermott invests the Chief Weasel with a spivvy, Arthur Daley-style raffishness. Even if there is nothing predatory about the relationship of Simon Lipkin’s Rat to Craig Mather’s Mole, they also hint at a molten friendship.
It’s one of those pieces of theatre that passes the time innocently but, at today’s prices, I’m not sure that is enough. The book may be susceptible to many different readings but here you feel it has been adapted with professional commitment rather than reimagined with personal passion.
- At the London Palladium, booking until 9 September. Box office: 0844-412 4655.
