101 Dalmatians is a new-ish musical, with music and lyrics by Douglas Hodge and book by Jonny McKnight. It is based on a stage adaptation by Zinnie Harris of Dodie Smith’s 1956 novel, The Hundred And One Dalmatians, and it was first seen at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in 2022. This new, updated production opened last week in Wimbledon, and it comes to Birmingham as the next stop in a year-long UK tour.
The story is recognisably based on the same premise as the novel and the two Disney versions, the 1961 animated film and the 1996 live action remake, but the musical introduces its own variations.
The show opens with a filthy and neglected dalmatian dog (Linford Johnson) being thrown out of a car and abandoned by his owners. He is taken to the Puppy Love Dogs Home, where he is initially frightened and aggressive. He is dirty and smelly, so they call him Pongo. The animal care workers clean him up, and he learns to trust one in particular, Danielle (Jessie Elland). One of her colleagues describes Pongo as, "dependable, bright, can be nervous of strangers," which describes Danielle, too, and she adopts him.
Later, Danielle and Pongo meet Tom (Samuel Thomas), an aspiring fashion designer, and his dalmatian, Perdi (Emma Thornett), in the park. Dogs have a formal etiquette for meeting new dogs: they sniff each other’s bums. In the absence of a human equivalent, Tom and Danielle are awkward and tongue-tied with each other, but in spite of their mutual shyness, they fall in love and move in together.
Tom gets his big break, a commission from a leading fashion house, the Haus of De Vil, but there’s a catch. Perdi is pregnant and Cruella De Vil (Kym Marsh in Birmingham, Faye Tozer will play the role on some dates on the tour) says Tom can only have the job if he sells her the puppies. Tom and Danielle at first reluctantly agree, but they back out of the deal when the puppies, all fifteen of them, arrive. Cruella sends her comedy double act nephews, Jasper and Casper (Danny Hendrix and Charles Brunton), to steal them and the race is on to rescue the puppies, and the other dalmatians she has also stolen, before she can skin them for their fur.
This is an utterly charming and thoroughly enjoyable show. Cruella De Vil is a proper, hissable villain, Tom and Danielle are sweet and Jasper and Casper are genuinely funny. The puppets look super, and the cast of sixteen do an amazing job singing and controlling them at the same time.
It’s a proper, old-fashioned book musical, complete with overture, and the music, played by a live, six-piece pit band, led by MD Leigh Stanford Thompson, has a very British-sounding, Lionel Bart feel to it. The lyrics are smart, with a knowing, satirical edge, and there’s some silly, playfully scatological, child-friendly stuff for good measure.
In the song “Contemplate The Criminal”, various crooks justify their life choices, including Boris Johnson. Jasper and Casper put on Super Mario Brothers moustaches to disguise themselves as plumbers, and Casper talks his way into the house by saying, "you can trust us. Look, we’ve got a lanyard!" At one point, Cruella De Vil acquires a dog-like sense of smell and sings, “I can smell puppy, I can smell fur, and when it comes to wet doggy fart, I’m a connoisseur”. It’s fun and funny, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it doesn’t talk down to its audience either.
Bill Buckhurst’s staging has a homespun, old-fashioned feel. Apart from a big fixed set consisting of three concentric arches with programmable LED lights, there are very few flown set pieces, and most scenes are created by various cast members wheeling trucks on and off stage. Lucy Hind’s choreography is limited by the fact that so many of the ensemble are doing double duty as puppeteers, but it works well. I sat in the stalls and the sound balance was exactly right for me, neither terrifyingly loud nor horribly shrill.
This is a feelgood show with home and family at its heart and a message of understanding. Cruella De Vil has a backstory of parental neglect and sibling jealousy to justify her unhappy adulthood, which gives her a connection to the loving home Pongo finds and which she lacks. Later in the show, the puppies are led to freedom by Tabby the cat, who explains that cats don’t hate dogs, they just wish they wouldn’t chase them, so there’s no reason why they can’t live peacefully together.
If you haven’t warmed to the show already, the moment when the puppy, Linda, gets her spots should do the trick. If you have access to a child, then take them, they will love it, but be prepared for the inevitable, "can we have a puppy, please?" conversation on the way home.