Oi Frog and Friends! review – a wild time for fans of rhyme

Lyric theatre, London
Jumpy new student Frog overcomes his starting-school nerves in this exuberant musical adaptation of Kes Gray and Jim Field’s picture books

Cats sit on mats, mules sit on stools and pumas sit on satsumas. So how about duck-billed platypuses? You’ll know the answer if you’ve raced through the sequels to Kes Gray and Jim Field’s giddy picture book Oi Frog! – which seems to be just about everyone at the Lyric theatre for this boisterous musical adaptation, where the characters and rhymes from the popular series are shaken up and scattered across an original new tale. Like pop stars holding the mic out to their fans, this gang of actors can count on kids to finish every line. “What about sofas?” they ask. “Gophers!” bellows six-year-old Hilda into my ear.

Hilda loves the Oi series: at bedtime, one book always leads to another, albeit with diminishing returns. There’s barely a plot between the stories, so neither of us can imagine how they’ll inspire an hour-long show. The setting in Emma Earle’s production – co-written with Zoe Squire, Luke Bateman and Richy Hughes – is Sittingbottom school for animals, inspired by a blackboard scene in Oi Frog! where cranky Cat teaches rhymes that tell creatures where to sit. Preschoolers and reception pupils will respond to a plot that touches on overcoming nerves, making friends and braving school dinners, before growing increasingly zany.

That sourpuss becomes Sittingbottom’s head prefect and Frog is a jumpy new student whose sentimental ballad might be the mushiest amphibian solo since Robin sang Halfway Down the Stairs on The Muppets. However, once he learns that frogs sit on logs – splinters and all – our hoppy hero rebels and becomes a demon rhymer, laying down new rules, with cats forced to sit on gnats.

The pace mostly matches the delirium of the books: one show-stopping number in the canteen finds Cheetah serving fajitas while dancing to salsa and bouncing giant beach balls at the audience. For Hilda, this is the highlight – along with a rampaging elephant who brandishes his deadly trunk and sprays us all with water. The accompanying Scarface gag (“Say hello to my little friend”) is one of very few jokes winked at adults. Elsewhere, a “take back control” line falls flat. While the school setting springs naturally from the picture books, there is an ill-fitting subplot about Cat’s nine lives as a superhero. It will also be dispiriting to some grownups, relishing screen-free time with the kids, to find that so much of the play’s new material revolves around television.

Field’s illustrations have been faithfully rendered as a striking assortment of puppets by Yvonne Stone. As Cat, Lucy Tuck wears a huge feline mask above her head which, in the manner of The Lion King, works in tandem with her own seething expressions. Frog is a cheery hand-and-rod puppet with eyebrows that seem to soar above his eyes, just as in Field’s illustrations. There’s a variety of styles in the music, too, from the gnu’s folksy down-river ditty to a Hamilton-esque rap battle between Frog and Cat. While I found the songs largely forgettable, Hilda was still singing the opening number hours later.

Like the books, it all adds up to an exuberant experience that leaves you rhyming endlessly. So audiences may well tell their best friend to sit in the West End.

• At the Lyric theatre, London, until 5 January.