A SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. TITLE

The Gingerbread Man

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  2w, 4m

David Wood

Book, Music, and Lyrics by David Wood

While the Big Ones sleep, plenty of activity is taking place in the kitchen. The cuckoo clock has lost his voice and might end up in the trash if he doesn't recover it.

The Gingerbread Man

Request licence
Get the Script
  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 4m
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Fantasy, Theatre for Young Audiences
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Appropriate for All Audiences

Details

Summary

The play takes place on an antique kitchen dresser. The Gingerbread Man, newly baked by the Big Ones, meets Salt, Pepper and Herr Von Cuckoo, who lives in the cuckoo-clock. He has a sore throat which is ruining his “cuckoos”, thus threatening to land him in the dreaded dustbin. The Gingerbread Man’s efforts to help Cuckoo’s sore throat are hampered by the villainous scavenger Sleek the Mouse and by The Old Bag – an old tea-bag who lives in the tea pot on the top shelf.

History

The Gingerbread Man was premiered at Towngate Theatre, Basildon on 7 December 1976.

Performing Groups

HERR VON CUCKOO – The Swiss-made cuckoo in the cuckoo clock. He wears leder-hosen.

SALT – A salt cellar, based in design on the blue-and-white horizontal striped variety, thus making him look like a sailor, and indeed that's how he sees himself.

PEPPER – A well-groomed, svelte, elegant female pepper-mill.

THE GINGERBREAD MAN – Who looks like what he is!

THE OLD BAG – An elderly, short-tempered, tea bag, who lives on the shelf, inside a cottage-style teapot.

SLEEK, THE MOUSE – An American gangster-style villain. Not as smooth as he'd like to appear.

THE VOICES OF THE BIG ONES – These can either be pre-recorded or doubled by other members of the cast. They are the voices of the family who own the house in whose kitchen and on whose dresser the action takes place.

  • Setting

    On a kitchen dresser

  • Additional Features Play with Music

Media

“Theatre at its best.” – Daily Mail

“Worth travelling miles to see.” – BBC Kaleidoscope


“The perfect children’s play.” – Time Out


“How the children loved it. It was clear they were not merely engrossed with the goings-on on stage, but in many cases almost beside themselves with excitement … a superb success.” – Birmingham Post


“No one knows better than David Wood how to excite a child’s interest and imagination and not for nothing has he earned the title of ‘the National Children’s Dramatist’, a title fully deserved on the evidence of his GINGERBREAD MAN … rapturously welcomed by a large and vociferous audience of youngsters… for two hours of sheer enchantment this show would be hard to beat.” – Aberdeen Press and Journal


“…splendid … the company succeed in stirring the loudest audience participation I have ever heard and, much more remarkable, commanding the most absolute breath holding silences.” – The Times

Videos

  • David Wood on Doing It Yourself youtube thumbnail

    David Wood on Doing It Yourself

  • David Wood on Getting Started As a Playwright youtube thumbnail

    David Wood on Getting Started As a Playwright

  • David Wood on Challenges In His Plays youtube thumbnail

    David Wood on Challenges In His Plays

  • Interview with David Wood youtube thumbnail

    Interview with David Wood

Music

Music Samples

Act 1


1. Toad in the Throat – Herr Von Cuckoo

2. The Dresser Hop – Salt, Pepper, Herr Von Cuckoo

3. The Gingerbread Man – The Gingerbread Man, Salt, Pepper, Herr Von Cuckoo

4. Beware of the Old Bag – Salt, Pepper, Herr Von Cuckoo

5. Heave-Ho, A-Rolling Go – Salt, Pepper, The Gingerbread Man

The Power of the Leaf – The Old Bag, The Gingerbread Man

Sleek the Mouse – Sleek the Mouse


Act 2


7A. Heave-Ho, A-Rolling Go (reprise) – Salt, Pepper, The Gingerbread Man

8. Herbal Remedy – The Old Bag, Salt, Pepper, The Gingerbread Man

9. Hot Stuff – Pepper

10. Come the Light – Salt, Pepper, The Gingerbread Man, The Old Bag

10A. Toad in the Throat (reprise) – Herr Von Cuckoo, Audience, with Salt, Pepper, The Gingerbread Man, The Old Bag

10B. The Gingerbread Man (reprise) – All (excerpt Sleek the Mouse)

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Scripts

Available Formats:
Get the Script

Authors

David Wood

David Wood

David Wood has been called “the national children’s dramatist” (London Times). His plays are performed worldwide, and include The Gingerbread Man, The Plotters of Cabbage Patch Corner, Save the Human, Aladdin, Hijack Over Hygenia, Jack the Lad, Larry the Lamb in Toytown, Old ...

View full profile

Now Playing