Oversized Fun with a Giant Peach
- Rebecca Burnham
- Jul 31
- 5 min read
This week and next, I’ll be reviewing two new-to-me musicals, James and the Giant Peach and Prince of Egypt which are playing alongside The Importance of Being Earnest in my hometown of not quite 4,000, during our annual Summer Theatre Festival. I was ecstatic to see that Prince of Egypt was coming to town, because I love the original movie version and I’ve been hankering to see it onstage. I’ve got tickets for that tonight, so I’ll share my thoughts on it next week.
James and the Giant Peach was not initially a big draw for me, because I’m not familiar with the book or the movie. But I wanted to support it on principle, not just to write about it here, but because it’s a musical that’s written for families and we need a greater abundance of those. So I seized my first opportunity to attend last Friday. And wow! I had no idea what a treat I was in for.
Sometimes, the magic ingredient that makes a great musical is the creator’s love for the story. You can feel that love in James and the Giant Peach. It oozes through every scene (“oozes” is more apropos than “glitters” because this tale involves slithering crocodile tongues, a six-foot tall earthworm and other human-sized creepy crawlies).
The love is real. James and the Giant Peach was the first chapter book that book-writer Timothy Allen McDonald ever enjoyed. The last thing he wanted to do in third grade was waste his time reading. But his teacher gave him a special homework assignment: to read just the first page of Roald Dahl’s fantastical story. He put it off that day until bedtime. Then he read about four-year-old James’ parents getting eaten by a rhino, ending their troubles in a jiffy, but James’ troubles had only just begun. McDonald was hooked and read the entire book, then dreamt about it for what was left of the night. He would later be diagnosed with dyslexia, but says the love of reading he discovered that night kept it from holding him back.
Years later, he met Dahl’s work on a much more intimate level when he co-wrote the book for the stage musical version of Willy Wonka. Then Dahl’s widow authorized him to write the book for James and the Giant Peach. He went hunting for musical collaborators but several efforts at a partnership didn’t pan out. Then three industry insiders all suggested he connect with an up-and-coming songwriting team: Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. They were just two years out of university.
McDonald invited them to try out with three songs, an opening number, James’ “I Want” song, and the villain song. What he didn’t know was that the duo had already written up a wishlist of the three musicals they most wanted to write together. James and the Giant Peach was on it. They returned within days with all three numbers ready to demo, and McDonald was sold.
It was a challenging story to bring to the stage in a way that would be welcoming to whole families, because of its darker elements. First, James loses his parents in a brutal accident. Then he’s handed into the care of his physically and emotionally abusive aunts (professional pickpockets) who could teach Annie’s Miss Hannigan a few things about cruelty. He has repeated near-brushes with death, and spends a good deal of time cooped up in close quarters with a human-sized centipede nursing a massive grudge against all humans.
At first, with their eyes on a Broadway run, they decided to lean into the darker elements. They wanted “a musical with a capital M…not kiddie theater.” They adopted a novel approach to sets and special effects for the initial stagings – using dancers instead of set pieces to create James’ bleak and fantastical world. They amped up James’ backstory with an early number “Perfectly Perfect” that carried the little boy from a British court through a home for transient boys and a sweat shop, to an insane asylum. This met with mixed reviews and the team listened carefully to audience and critical responses, staging a reworked version in Seattle in 2013 that was friendlier to younger audiences. They cut “Perfectly Perfect” and replaced the spooky dancers with set pieces and puppetry. That spells a probable end to their hopes of seeing their show on Broadway, but it allows the show to connect beautifully with audiences of all ages.
Despite leaning less into the dark, the final version is not “kiddie theater.” It’s both kid-friendly and witty. It’s a show that pulls us in by both the heart and the funny bone. We can’t resist James’ longing for a home, where there is “someone waiting for you,” and his plea to the insects in the orphanage, “May I hold onto your wings and come, too? On your way home?” That’s before he gets consigned to the care of his despicable aunts, Spiker and Sponge, who consider him property. Their gleeful villainy is both horrifying and humorous while it contrasts with James’ gentleness.
An early version was criticized for featuring a “passive” main character “to whom much happens but who takes little action.” If that criticism hit the mark then, the creative team listened and made changes. James does not start this story as a spunky hero with an innate sense of his worth that empowers him to defy his oppressors. Such characters can drive an exciting narrative, but in real life, they aren’t the products of backstories like this orphan’s. He’s a beaten-down child, deprived of belonging since he was four years old, and habituated to walking small and keeping his head down. And he’s heroic, because although he’s consistently treated with cruelty, he chooses to be kind. And his opportunity to escape victimhood is closely connected to his rescue of an earthworm from becoming the dinner of a prowling centipede. Then he grows. With encouragement from his new friends in the giant peach, he learns enough confidence to speak up with the ideas that save their lives. He refuses to return Centipede’s animosity, eventually saving his critic’s life at the risk of his own. He offers forgiveness and belonging and fully earns the home to which he eventually arrives.
None of these messages comes across as heavy-handed because they’re presented in a hilarious package with winning, eclectic music. Spiker and Sponge are despicable, but their songs are so much fun, and their ode to each other “I Got You” is so backhandedly tender, that we can’t take joy in their being eventually crushed to death by the peach. It was necessary; we approve James’ feeling relieved. But there’s no desire to dance on their graves.
There is ingenious use of puppetry to introduce us to characters that will grow to human-size and become vitally important to James. They will also become enormously funny, especially Earthworm.
James and the Giant Peach is a series of delights from beginning to end, with surprisingly important messages that might even escape your notice until you’re musing on it afterwards. The production being staged right now in Cardston, AB, is stellar. The vocals are winning, the characterizations bang on, the props and sets a delight. If you’re in the area, this is a musical you won’t want to miss.
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