Thursday, Mar. 11 2010 6:57PM

I Wan’na be like you!

LSN performs ‘The Jungle Book’

Julie Scheidegger, Journal Staff

Monkeys run wild through high school auditorium - it’s a headline. When they do it to “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns and Roses, it’s Lee’s Summit North High School’s production of “The Jungle Book.”

Yes, a company of dancing monkeys in grass skirts, a cool quartet of vultures, stomping elephants, flying birds and a huge puppet snake all await at the children’s theater production opening at 7 p.m., March 19 at the North Performing Arts Center. The monkeys interact with the audience as they dance up and down the aisles – even providing the service of “flea picking” to lucky children.

“(I’ve got) a lot of respect for the monkeys,” sophomore Chris Riegle, who plays Bagheera, said. “It’ll be great to see what kind of improvisational things they’ll be doing in the audience.”

The monkeys and the entire cast have one mission – keep the crowd engaged and entertained.

“Our target audience doesn’t always have the longest attention span,” drama teacher Shayne Daniel said.

So, he designs the show with bright colors, large vivid imagery, dancing monkeys and a cast that isn’t inhibited by the traditional boundaries of the stage. Animals take shape in a variety of personalities and dimensions from puppets to large-scale representations. The makeup and costume crews took cues from Broadway’s “The Lion King.”

“The costume people are one of the biggest assets to the Lee’s Summit North Drama Department,” junior Joel Stockard, who plays the bear Baloo, said.

The goal is to give the impression of an animal without being completely literal.

“I didn’t want a kid in a bear suit,” Daniel said. “That would have been horribly hot and uncomfortable. (It’s) not conducive to them singing and wiring the microphones.”

Riegle, who plays a panther, just hoped his animal impression wouldn’t involve a black leotard. He dodged that bullet and wears ears and gloves with claws.

The production, that ends with an updated pop version of “I Wan’na be like You,” is a far cry from the seriousness of other performances like this fall’s “West Side Story.”

“You get to goof around a lot and you don’t have to pretend people are crying and dying,” Riegle said. It’s just light-hearted fun, Daniel said, and the actors embrace it.

“They get to relive their childhood even if it wasn’t that long ago,” he said. Lee’s Summit North High School present’s “The Jungle Book” Shows: 7 p.m., March 19-20 and 2 p.m., March 21 at the Lee’s Summit North High School Performing Arts Center, 901 N.E. Douglas St. Tickets: Reserve tickets online at www.lsntheatre.com, call 816-986-3031 or purchase them at the door. Tickets are $5 for students, $6 for adults.