The Jingle Book

Scene One - The Christmas Fair

The show opens to a Christmas fair held in the square of a snowy village. We meet the nasty Jagger Spitz and his long-suffering sidekick, Noggins, who are preparing their stall of scary wooden toys for sale. Jagger is rude to everyone around him including the customers and we learn that he hates children and Christmas, - he's only at the fair to make some money.

Four children, Piper, Jem, Mina and Kai come to the fair and upset Jagger with their happy singing. They steer clear of him and go to the other stalls as Jagger, Noggins and the chorus sing the song Jagger Spitz.

The children approach a second-hand book stall and begin rummaging about; Piper discovers an ancient book in amongst the books for sale. Clement, the book seller, can't remember seeing it before in his stock, although it is labelled 'Clement's Books'.

As the children look through the mysterious book, they discover that they can all see different things on the pages and apart from a faded message on the first page, Clement cannot see anything. Just as everyone is puzzling over the book, Jagger approaches and tries to grab the book off the children. The children are saved by a commotion on Jagger's stall (where a child is bitten by one of Jagger's toys) and Jagger has to attend to it. Clement urges the children to leave quickly with the ancient book.

Scene Two - What Is This Book?

Back at home, the children gather round their kitchen table to study the book. They try to make out the faded message on the first page, then realise that they can no longer see the pictures in the book that they had seen at the fair. Suddenly, a picture of a barn in a forest materializes on the page. The children then sing What Is This Book?

After the song, there is a knock at the door and the children overhear Jagger Spitz telling their mum that they have taken his book. The book makes a bell-like sound and a poem appears on the page telling the children to follow the trail of a robin. The children exit hurriedly before their mum arrives with Jagger.

Scene Three - The Journey Begins

The children meet up with Robin who tells them to hurry with him to a barn in the forest. Just as they leave, Jagger and Noggins rush on stage. Jagger is furious at having missed the children, again, and decides to enlist the help of someone who likes cold weather.

Scene Four - In The Forest

Robin leads the children to a barn in a forest glade. Here they meet Lady Aurora and Arctic Fox. Aurora greets them kindly and the children, anxious to find out what is going on, bombard her with questions. Aurora tells them to look again at the book and they read, 'If lost return to the North Pole'. In disbelief, the children realize they have to go to the North Pole. Aurora gives them a warm cloak each for the journey and tells them that the book is called The Jingle Book and will guide them on their journey, although Arctic Fox will take the children some of the way. As they leave, Robin wonders how the children will feel when they discover that they have been sent on a quest to save Christmas.

Scene Five - Jack Frost

The scene begins with the song Jack Frost, sung by the Snow Chorus who tell us of Jack's freezing skills. As the backdrop changes to a frozen landscape at the end of the song, Jagger enters with Noggins and discusses how Jack can make the children's journey to the North Pole as difficult as possible. Jack introduces two snowmen, Ben and Jerry, who have a giant ice cream chill-o-meter, which indicates the degree of freezing snow according to iced cakes and food. Jagger selects the most difficult setting.

Scene Six - Lemmings

Arctic Fox and the children enter and are shocked at how frozen everywhere is. They question Arctic Fox about The Jingle Book and Jagger Spitz and discover that the book contains all the magic of Christmas. Without it being returned to the North Pole, Christmas won't happen. Suddenly, The Jingle Book's bells sound and the children see a map to the Ice Mountain and a tunnel they must pass through. Jem, however, can only see sandwiches. The children discover cheese sandwiches in the pockets of their cloaks and, as they are about to eat them, a group of lemmings surround them wanting their food. Arctic Fox advises the children to hand over the sandwiches as a gift, as it is always a good idea to make friends. The lemmings depart happily, and the children find extra sandwiches in their pockets.

Scene Seven - The Ice Mountain

In the Ice Mountain, Jack Frost, Ben and Jerry try to construct an ice barrier to block the exit of the tunnel, as requested by Jagger. Jack decides to do it as a game of Twister, and in a comic scene they try out different positions to block the entrance. The children and Arctic Fox arrive to find the exit blocked by ice, but Fox realises what's going on and calls out a Twister position which Jack and the snowmen foolishly move to and the barrier collapses.

Scene Eight - The Lady Aurora

Once through the Ice Mountain the children approach the sea, and Arctic Fox has to return to the forest. The children are all worried about being left on their own, but Fox tells them that they will find help in unexpected places. Fox leaves and the children consult The Jingle Book but they get no information. A pair of grumpy puffins enter arguing. Suddenly, Lady Aurora and her Northern Lights dancers appear. Aurora sings Aurora's Song whilst the Northern Lights drift around her, then they all leave. The children are upset that Aurora has left without helping them and try to find clues in the words of her song. They decide that they should try to find the Unicorn of the Sea. The children approach the puffins for help, but the puffins are very rude and waddle off. Running out of options, the children determine to follow the puffins who have gone back to their burrow.

Scene Nine - The Unicorn Of The Sea

Back at their burrow, the puffins discover that the children have followed them and continue to be very rude. Suddenly, out of the sea, a narwhal appears (created by the Northern Lights dancers with a glittering tusk) and its tusk points skyward to the stars. One of the puffins tells the children it is pointing to the North Star, directly over the North Pole, so the children know where to go to complete their journey.

Scene Ten - The Jingle Book

Jagger and Noggins reach the North Pole and hide, ready to ambush the children. The children enter and hear The Jingle Book bells; they are confused to find that the book is telling them to take cheese sandwiches out of their pockets. Suddenly, Jagger and Noggins confront them, and are about to take The Jingle Book, when the lemmings rush on stage after the cheese sandwiches. The lemmings knock Jagger and Noggins over. The children start to escape and bump into Father Christmas who welcomes them warmly. Aurora and an elf enter, and Father Christmas is given The Jingle Book.

We discover that Jagger had been an elf called Jolly Sparkletoes, who was the best wooden toy maker in the North Pole. However, he had taken great offence when children stopped asking for the wooden toys that he made and had stolen The Jingle Book to get revenge. Somehow, Jagger lost the book and it turned up at the Christmas fair. Because Jolly was angry with children everywhere, only children could return the book and restore the goodwill and the magic.

Jagger/Jolly is forgiven and given his job back, as long as he doesn't make any more ugly toys. The show ends with the final song sung by everyone The Jingle Book. During the reprise, Jagger/Jolly and Noggins are seen onstage, giving the boy with the bitten finger from the first scene a large present and lollipop.

Speaking Roles By Number Of Lines

N.B. In the following list, the number shows how many SPOKEN lines each role has. An asterisk (*) before the characters name indicates that this character ALSO has solo or featured sung lines.

Non-speaking roles: singing or dancing: Carol Singers/Snow Chorus: 4, Shoppers/Snow Chorus: 2, Northern Lights Dancers: 6.

Suggested Cast List For 27 Actors

N.B. In the following list, the number shows how many SPOKEN lines each role has. An asterisk (*) before the characters name indicates that this character ALSO has solo or featured sung lines.

Non-speaking roles: singing/dancing: Carol Singers/Snow Chorus/Northern Lights Dancers: 4, Shoppers/Snow Chorus/Northern Lights Dancers: 2.