TINGA TINGA TALES THE MUSICAL TILL APRIL 17: GO QUICK!!

TINGA TINGA TALES: THE MUSICAL TRIUMPH

By margaretta wa Gacheru April 2016

The only production that I’ve seen in Kenya that comes even close to the quality, creativity and  exceptional synthesis of music, dance, costuming, set design and even props of the brand new musical ‘Tinga Tinga Tales, the Musical’ is ‘Mo Faya’.

It’s obvious why this is the case: Eric Wainaina wrote the music for both productions; he also starred in both and his mate Sheba Hirst was the producer of both shows, the latter point explaining how last Friday night’s premier performance of the new musical came off without a hitch at The Elephant, the venue off James Gicheru Road in Lavington, best known for its Thursday night live music but nothing ever before on the scale of Tinga Tinga Tales (TTT).

There are huge differences between the two musicals however, largely because one was completely written by Eric and was set wholly in the present-day Nairobi, while Tinga Tinga Tales derives from the animated children’s TV series scripted by Claudia Lloyd and based on traditional African folktales.

The other big difference between the two shows is that Mo faya was directed by John Sibi Okumu whereas in TTT Claudia Lloyd directs and Sibi costars as the Lion King of the Tinga Tinga animal kingdom.

Yet in both cases, there’s an all-Kenyan cast who were compelled to sing, dance and in the case of Mo Faya, travel all the way to New York City where the show was staged off Broadway and to Europe where it wow-ed audiences in Switzerland.

There’s no telling where TTT will go, but certainly the storyline is charming as it draws upon several of the folktales that Ms Lloyd adapted for more than 50 episodes of the TTT animated TV series. They include the wonderful tales of how the giraffe got her long neck, how the chameleon acquired his camouflage and beautiful colors and even how the animal kingdom put together its own Festival of Colors.

But transforming cartoon animations into an enchanting musical for both children’s and adults’ happy consumption was quite a feat that couldn’t have been done without a collective effort that required expertise from everyone, including a choreographer like Mkamzee Mwatela, costume designer like Ann McCreath of Kiko Romeo, and of course Claudia Lloyd, all of whom were able to make us believe Sibi Okumu was a king, Eric a monkey, and even Iddi Achieng a hippopotamus.

Certainly all the children who came (and got to sit on the floor right in front of the colorful stage in what Sheba Hirst described just before the show began as the ‘best seats in the house’) had no problem believing Elsaphan Njora was a tortoise, Joshua Mwai an elephant and Phy a giraffe (even after she acquired her super-long neck).

They didn’t even have a problem believing the way Chameleon (Elton John Mwambi) was transformed from being gray and dull to acquiring a brand new suit, cape and even dreadlocks of rainbow colors. For it was all part of the enchantment that TTT managed to achieve.

But special praise has to go out to Eric Wainaina whose music was both masterful and a beautiful mix of many different genres, styles and sounds. He clearly worked closely with Claudia Lloyd to synchronize sound and script very well.

The band as well as the entire cast also deserves heaps of praise since they all performed like seasoned professionals.

But I can’t forget the set designers at Studio Propolis as well as the light and sound technicians from Homeboyz and Bankslave who painted the set beautifully with one giant bird-filled baobab tree. The lighting never interfered with the acting and the sound was also superlative as we could actually hear every syllable and song, whether the language was English or Kiswahili.

One can only hope that TTT: The Musical will go as far, if not farther than Mo Faya did. We need not draw parallels between TTT and The Lion King which also started as an animated film and then became a phenomenal musical and smash hit. It’s tempting to compare the two productions, especially as both aim to charm and enchant children and adults alike. But the future looks bright for Kenya’s newest musical that runs at the Elephant until April 17^th from Wednesdays through Sundays at 3pm and 6pm.

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