The ravenous, toothy croc in Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake’s 1978 picture book sparingly uses singsong phrases as he endeavours to procure a “child for lunch” whose “bones go crunch”. This musical version for over-fours finds the joy in abundant rhyme as two frogs share a log along the Nile, home of an “awful reptile”.
Lyricist Suhayla El-Bushra and composer Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab’s songs get off to a snappy start while Jessica Hung Han Yun’s lighting and Fly Davis’s set create a dense jungle that should complement Regent’s Park Open Air theatre where this show runs next summer. One inspired early scene finds a row of crocodiles at a dentist’s run by birds who use their beaks to extract the grisly bits of dinner between their clients’ gnashers, bringing to mind the leftovers lodged in Mr Twit’s beard.
