Over the weekend, audiences at Playhouse Merced were treated to its Young Artists Conservatory’s extraordinary production of “James and the Giant Peach Jr.”
The musical is based on author Roald Dahl’s classical whimsical story of a young boy, James (played by Nate Alvarez), whose parents have been tragically killed in an accident with a rhino at the London Zoo, leaving him in the care of Painswick Orphanage.
James soon finds out his two aunts have agreed to accept custody of him. He is moved out of the orphanage to live with them and is placed under the supervision of the conniving Spiker (played by Reese Richards) and Sponge (played by Frankie Fenton), who make their living by stealing, lying and bribing the cops and formulate a scheme to use James as their personal servant.
After being commanded to cut down their old peach tree, James meets the magical Ladahlord (played by Lyra Mook), the narrator of the story, who guides him to make a potion that will bring full power to whoever ingests it.
James trips and spills the potion, and a giant peach grows from the dilapidated peach tree. It’s apparent that the potion was also ingested by insects feeding on the peach. When James finds a doorknob in the enormous peach and is sucked inside, he meets and makes friends with some human-sized insects — Green Grasshopper (played by Aidan Mook), Ladybug (played by Danielle Flores), Spider (played by Bailey Sarginson), Centipede (played by Kendall Brown) and Earthworm (played by Ikey Davies) — who have grown magically large.
The giant peach’s stem snaps and freed from the tree, it begins to roll, and eventually carries them all into the ocean where they find themselves on a thrill-filled journey from England to New York City on the seaworthy peach. The journey includes a terrible trauma for the boy and his insect friends when sharks surround the peach.
Playhouse Merced’s production of “James and the Giant Peach Jr.,” based on the book by Timothy Allen McDonald with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, was directed by Danaelle Rodriguez, Rebecca Whitmyre and Emily McSwain. The costumes were cleverly designed by Katie Young.
Corey Strauss created the set, which included an ingenious use of a playground merry-go-round where the characters were spun in a circle to represent what it was like to be rolling along inside the giant peach.
The cast was outstanding.
During an interview with the Times, Ikey Davies who played Earthworm, described his experience in the show.
He said, “Playhouse Merced is a great place to try new experiences and have fun. It was a great experience, and I made a lot of new friends.”
In the scene where sharks start to eat the peach, Earthworm, although reluctant at first, bravely allowed himself to be bait for seagulls so that the other insects could throw a spider web around their necks and the seagulls could fly them and the peach to safety.
Davies said, “Earthworm was a very enjoyable role, and it suited my character pretty well. It was a fun part being dangled for bait in front of the seagulls.”
Davies has been in Playhouse Merced’s “School of Rock” and “Elf,” and is looking forward to a role in Spamalot this summer.