Scouts! The Musical | Hope Mill Theatre

The scouting movement, now over 100 years old, has stood the test of time, many of us have either been involved in, or known someone who’s been a member of the Scouts, and it would be nigh on impossible to find anyone who’s completely unaware of their existence. So it seems almost inconceivable that nobody else has thought to create a stage show about their exploits prior to the Gigglemug, who have given the Scouts a new comedic facelift, though the success of which is questionable at best.

The plot centres around a collective event between a variety of different troops, competing in the “Scout games”, which pits members against each other in several events testing their collective abilities in everything from music and maths to martial arts. These games also comprise members of the audience brought up at the beginning, whom are selected by director Sam Cochrane prior to the show. This is a fun idea, akin to shows like Spelling Bee or Spamalot, but ultimately falls flat for the most part due to the uneven direction of these scenes, and too many awkward silences.

What is always hugely impressive with the Gigglemug is their ability to act, sing, and seamlessly rotate through various instruments, which they also managed with aplomb with their other major exponent “A Jaffa Cake Musical”, taking the idea of actor-musician performance to a new level; additionally the vocals across the board were solid, especially from Gigglemug newcomer Eleanor Fransch as the competitive, resourceful Eliza, who gave arguably the best musical and acting performance of the evening.

However this is, first and foremost, a comedy show, and the first rule of thumb is always that it has to elicit laughter to some degree. And whilst there are humorous moments scattered throughout the musical, the quality of humour is inconsistent; generally it feels stagnant, awkward and fairly predictable, and at times it was difficult to engage with it as a piece of comedic theatre. Family friendly comedy is the hardest to sell, as your humour palate is naturally far more restrictive as a writer, and by nature demands a degree of intelligence, which unfortunately wasn’t present in any meaningful way.

The music itself was well written, albeit fairly forgettable for the most part, and was all performed with terrific panache. The biggest dampener on proceedings musically was the sound design and mixing, which were rather poor in comparison, as the instruments were all cranked up far too high, and as a consequence, the vocal diction suffered considerably, particularly during the larger ensemble moments.

The inconsistent nature of the writing though wasn’t enough to deter the performers on stage, who clearly revel in the material and hold the audience superbly well, with particular plaudits reserved for Scout master Kemi Clarke, in a delightfully charming and commanding performance, where he gets to display his wonderful range as an actor, singer and instrumentalist.

Whilst the scouting movement has always had the perpetual mantra of “do your best” ingrained in their culture, alongside the renowned “be prepared” mentality, and the former is certainly applicable to those performing on stage, it is alas rather difficult to ignore the fact that the content and direction thereof have more of a “could do better” feel. This was fun and silly, two qualities synonymous with the Gigglemug, however in lieu of being able to start the campfire, this comedy musical largely burns out and leaves us cold.

★★☆☆☆ (2*)

Gifted tickets in return for an honest review.