Honk!: The Ugly Duckling story that grew into something special

Dominic Cavendish enjoys a revival of Honk! at the Watermill in Newbury

George Stiles and Anthony Drewe's light-as-a-feather musical version of the Hans Christian Andersen "Ugly Duckling" story Honk! picked up an Olivier Award in 2000 after its run at the National and has had more than 3,000 productions worldwide. I doubt, though, that it has enjoyed a more dinkily delightful outing than it gets in Stephen Dexter's revival at the Watermill Newbury, where it was first hatched in 1993.

Shivering outside on the lawn by the stream there are real-life ducks. Inside the warm, rustic auditorium designer Francis O'Connor has planted a synthetic duck pond that's brimful of plastic baubles, creating a lovely aquatic touch whenever anyone dives in and causes an overspill.

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Strumming and drumming, clucking and fussing, eight actor-musicians - attended by sundry infants - conjure the farmyard world into which Ugly is born and which he must leave, in the face of derision and at the risk of death, to discover his true identity.

It must be said that the show doesn't contain any number that outclasses the Frank Loesser song made famous by Danny Kaye in his 1952 celluloid tribute to Andersen - the one with the earworm chorus "quack, quack get out of town" - but Stiles's score is still as fresh as a newly laid egg and brings a jaunty, brightly coloured emphasis to each stage of our alienated hero's emotional learning curve, from the anxiously protective anthem "Hold Your Head Up High" to the romantic ballad "Now I've Seen You", which unfurls its contentment with slow, swan-like grace.

With his witty book and lyrics, Drewe makes sure the potentially earnest parable is served up with a pie-load of puerile puns - one of the best being the advice given to a disconsolate Ugly by a kindly Bullfrog (Simon Slater giving it full Tommy Cooper value): "You've been preening yourself too much - you've got down in the mouth."

Mark Anderson, squawking away and flapping around in a hand-knitted woolly jumper with overlong arms, makes an eager, fresh-faced, almost too-handsome Ugly. But then Andersen's tale was always more about difference than looks - and as such speaks to all children facing the age-old pressure to flock together.

My six-year-old son Lucas enjoyed the show and took to Verity Quade as waddling mother-duck Ida and Philip Reed's devilishly slinky Cat. Above all, he enjoyed picking up the stray plastic balls at the end and pitching them back in the pond.

We both agreed you'd be quackers not to see it.

Until Jan 5. Tickets: 01635 46044

Daily Telegraph - 13th December 2007