Ballet Shoes – National Theatre

The company of Ballet Shoes at the National Theatre (Olivier). Picture: Manuel Harlan

Ballet Shoes continues at the National Theatre (Olivier) until 22 February 2025.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Noel Streatfeild’s children’s book Ballet Shoes has won the hearts of generations of readers and has been adapted for film and TV, but surprisingly never for a major stage production until its opening in the National’s traditional festive family slot.

In the story, adapted from Streatfeild’s 1936 novel by Kendall Feaver, palaeontologist and sworn bachelor Great Uncle Matthew (GUM) finds life at the cavernous 999 Cromwell Road – set designer Frankie Bradshaw’s ramshackle ark of fossils and zoological illustrations occupying the full height of the Olivier stage space – transformed when his orphaned great niece Sylvia (Pearl Mackie) arrives on his doorstep.

Her imposition doesn’t stop his fossil-hunting expeditions, but, parental nature piqued, he does develop a habit of sending abandoned babies home from his travels.

The babies – Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil – grow into restless brats who surrogate mum Sylvia struggles to control, even under the watchful eye of Nana (Jenny Galloway, who plays a by-the-book inter-war housekeeper before bringing the house down with the show’s funniest line later on).

Of the bickering sisters – the belligerent Pauline (Grace Saif), sullen Petrova (Yanexi Enriquez) and dreamy Posy (Daisy Sequerra) – only Posy knows what she wants out of life, courtesy of the blue ballet shoes left with her as a baby.

When the absent GUM’s money runs out, the family is forced to take in three lodgers, each of whom inspires one of the girls to chase their dreams. In return, the lodgers – vibrant dancer Theo Dane (Nadine Higgin), gruff academic Dr Jakes (Helena Lymbery) and shy mechanic Jai Saran (Sid Sagar) – benefit from their time with the girls and soon become members of this unlikely extended family. Lymbery stands out as the brusque lesbian professor who has lost both her home and her job following the death of her partner, but who softens as she finds new life among the Fossils.

Instructed in stagecraft by Dr Jakes, Pauline finds her calling on the stage, although her debut as Alice – the whistle-stop Wonderland being a highlight of Act I – doesn’t go quite as planned. Petrova is spellbound by Jai’s car and declares her ambition of becoming a mechanic and perhaps even flying her own plane. Posy, meanwhile, continues to follow her dream of becoming a ballet dancer.

The action is breathless throughout as we dash from scene to scene courtesy of a busy ensemble who transform centre stage from ballet studio to bedsit and movie set to icy mountain pass. Director Katy Rudd has ensured that there isn’t a dead moment in the show’s 140-minute runtime and Feaver’s script is just as snappy, striking the perfect balance of 21st-century speech while grounding the action firmly in its 1930s setting.

No one in Ballet Shoes is as industrious as Justin Salinger. While his hilarious GUM – the epitome of the eccentric Edwardian adventurer – is off on his travels, the versatile Salinger goes on to play four more authority figures, most notably ballet teacher Madame Fidola, once a great ballerina now left with only her walking cane and her memories. His exasperated theatre director Mr French is also a comedy highlight.

When the house goes up for sale the girls vow to earn their keep by becoming child actors, the cue for a pacey Act II quick-change montage which culminates in an hilarious avant-garde production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream during which introspective wannabe pilot Petrova finds her wings in the most spectacular fashion.

Samuel Wyer’s costumes literally sparkle during the offbeat Shakespeare scene but are inventive throughout, never strictly stuck in the play’s 1930s setting and, in Sylvia’s denim-clad case, never so. She, after all, is the one who drags GUM out of his Edwardian ways and, although she is visibly frustrated at not achieving her own ambitions, represents a future where the girls can be whoever they want.

And that is the moral of Ballet Shoes. It’s really not about ballet at all – although the jazz and classical dance scenes, and particularly Posy’s solo audition wearing the titular shoes, are wonderfully choreographed by Ellen Kane – but the idea that with hard work and the right people around you, you can be whoever and whatever you want to be.

In that respect Ballet Shoes joins a roll call of recent shows that embrace girl power, from Six and Wicked to Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World. But even away from this message is a heartwarming show which, right down to the energetic curtain call, will inspire younger audience members and give the whole family a great night out.

Rhys Lewis