I Saw the Totoro Musical

They did it. Those madlads actually brought huge, fuzzy freak Totoro to the West End, to a sort of musical-light show at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, where I once saw Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella before it transferred to Broadway and became BAD Cinderella (a truly iconic and insane move).

Bloke spotted.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this, because shows aimed at kids can often veer towards the predictable and bland. I'd seen a few pictures from past My Neighbour Totoro performances, and the puppets and sets looked really cool, but as far as the story's translation to the stage was concerned, I had modest expectations.

Sure enough, the sight of two adult women playing bombastic, screaming children took a little bit of getting used to. Sometimes I feel like this sort of thing works better through the TV than on the stage, somehow. Looking at real people in person can change something about the believability of the performance, or my ability to suspend my disbelief for this, and there are a few scenes in particular (one where Mei sits on the ground and cries in that stop-start way that tiny children do, for example) during which I thought, unstoppably: that's a woman.

Women alert!

It's kind of a strange thing - and also perhaps worth noting that there was no child in sight in the audience - but after a while I more-or-less forgot about it, especially with Mei, because her actress, Victoria Chen, really channeled the pure energy of a four year old. She had some absolutely perfect small child expressions. I was convinced.

Photo via Victoria Chen's Instagram, @vhickles.

The biggest star of the show is the big man himself, of course, and he looks phenomenal. Totoro is some sort of balloon puppet creature, and his movement is so smooth and impressive. When he grins, you grin. When he roars, you sit in silent reverence. This guy is great.

Large.

There are so many gorgeously designed elements of the show - numerous puppets, and beautiful sets that are moved in very inventive ways that really propel the narrative. There's some new sort of visual delight to be seen almost always, and let me tell you, when Catbus arrived, its headlight eyes casting frightening beams of light through the darkness of the stalls, I gasped.

The gorgeous inflated feline bus entranced me. I couldn't resist it.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I did enjoy the show. The thing is a glorious spectacle. It's cute, it has some good little moments of humour, and quite frankly, it's Totoro. 

I loved it. 

***

The photos used in this post are from various productions.