Preview: James and the Giant Peach

I like a challenge! And I love Roald Dahl’s work. James is such a great story – full of fun and magic and the most brilliant characters. Although I probably must have forgotten that it needs a rhinoceros, an octopus, shark attacks and, of course, a giant peach!

I think it’s that he makes real kids the heroes of his stories. That appeals to kids and the kids inside all of us. Then he creates wonderful, larger than life characters for his heroes to help or to overcome on their adventures. James is a prime example – with his insect friends and horrible aunts – we’re all cheering him on!

Although it’s not a big West End-style musical, there are a handful of songs that bring music to Dahl’s rhymes. Music really helps drive the show on and helps tell the story.

It has been a huge amount of fun. I have a very talented cast and crew who have thrown themselves into the characters (and a bit of singing and dancing!). Working with them has been a blast. There have been a couple of challenges. Some of Dahl’s ideas are a bit dated now and not how we would expect people to behave. So I’ve tried to make sure any bad behaviour isn’t rewarded! And a big challenge for the actors has been to imagine all the technical elements that only come to life when you get into the final stages.

James (Ed Smith) is our hero, who grows from a downtrodden little boy into a hero who leads his band of giant insects on an adventure to a new life across the ocean. His new friends are the resourceful Miss Spider (Hannah McCorry) proud Old Green Grasshopper (Tom Melly), caring Miss Ladybird (Lorna Reed), boastful Centipede (Tom Mathias) and downbeat Earthworm (Douglas Patterson). Along the way we meet lots of characters, including his horrible Aunts Sponge and Spiker, and even the crew of the HMS Queen Mary.