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BrumHour saw The Jingleclaw at the invite of Birmingham Hippodrome.
By Dave Massey x.com/BrumHour
Review: The Jingleclaw at Birmingham Hippodrome
⭐⭐⭐⭐A fun, family-friendly one-hour musical
Directed by Anthony Lau book and lyrics by Robyn Grant, music and lyrics by Tim Gilvin
In a small town, a festival called Shnootnoot is about to take place, and the children of the town are very excited to be performing. Ms Whimsy (Sue Appleby), seems to be unfairly demoting Astrid (Isabella Gervais) to holding a shaker instead of playing the drums for the town festival. Elsewhere, The Jingleclaw (Alexia McIntosh) is hungry and ready to invade the town.
This is a brand new musical full of big ambition, the music and performance all feel bigger than the stage of The Patrick Studio at Birmingham Hippodrome. I would love to see this as an outdoor festival show. The characters are fun and easy to relate to, but I would have liked to see more of the titular Jingleclaw early on.
Alexia McIntosh is excellent as The Jingleclaw, full of fun, mischief and warmth, Alex Cardell steals his scenes as he swaps costumes many times throughout, from playing the moon, to a cheeky bat. Isabella Gervais is great as our main character Astrid, full of musical energy and a thirst for creating sounds.
The staging is fairly straightforward; a platform with stairs covered in long tinsel strands. A keyboard is on a stand to one side and a mobile drum kit on the other.
This script is full of topical and local references and feels like it could be adapted to suit any location.
I can’t wait to see what Birmingham Hippodrome produces next. There is even a playlist with selected tracks here: slinky.to/TheJingleclaw.
The Jingleclaw is a fun, family-friendly one-hour musical and is at Birmingham Hippodrome until 4th January 2025. Book tickets here: birminghamhippodrome.com/calendar/the-jingleclaw.
