In the jungle, the mighty jungle

We took the boys to see The Jungle Book performed by the Christian Youth Theater last week. I really enjoyed it and I think the rest of the family did, too. I was really impressed by some of the young people who were the actors. They were all between the ages of 8 and 18 and some of them were really good performers. The little girl who played young Angeli made me tear up a little with her solo. What a cutie. There were a few, though, who I think were probably being forced by their parents to participate. The looks on their faces were either from that or stage fright. But all in all it was a lot of fun to watch.

They presented the whole story from Mowgli getting lost to his adoption by the wolves to his reunion with his family years later. Three different boys played Mowgli through the stages of his life. One really sweet scene was when the teenage Mowgli and Angeli were singing about how each thinks is the right way to show affection to someone they like. Mowgli has learned from the animals how to show affection, so Angeli has to teach him how humans do it. For a few seconds she lowers her parasol in front of she and Mowgli and the audience can guess that they are kissing behind it. So that's how human do it?

After the show, I asked the boys if they thought they might want to be in a play. As expected, they said, "No." But a little while later, Josh said, "Mom, if I was going to be in The Jungle Book, I'd want to be the oldest Mowgli." "Oh, yeah," I replied, "Why?" His answer was, "Because he gets to do something with the girl behind the umbrella."

Oh, my. I think I'll encourage him to be Shere Khan. At least then he'll just get set on fire.