Room on the Broom – Lyric Theatre

Peter Steele, Jake Waring, Jessica Manu and Hannah Miller in Room on the Broom at the Lyric Theatre, London. Picture: Mark Senior

Room on the Broom continues at the Lyric Theatre, London until 4 September 2022.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

Tall Stories, now 25 years old, is a reliable entertainer of young audiences. Room on the Broom works well enough because, directed by Olivia Jacobs, it uses much of the catchy rhymes from the book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler it is based on.

It is in essence a quest narrative spliced with seeing off the monster – two of the world’s seven foundation stories from which all fiction arises. It therefore feels very safe.

A witch (Jessica Manu) and her cat (Hannah Miller) set off on the former’s broomstick to confront a dragon (Jake Waring – great fun). Various other characters played by Waring and Peter Steele join them en route. Friendship, teamwork and trust are crucial.

I admired the way, several times, characters changed dramatically into something else on stage and Steele’s puppet dog is delightful.

The distinctive accent work is also commendable: a plummy witch, a northern cat, American frog and estuary parrot, for example. It’s a witty mix.

On the other hand the songs (by John Fiber, Andy Shaw and Robin Price) are pretty bland and unmemorable until you get to the music hall pastiche sung by Waring as the parrot (nice piano underneath) and the  country and western number beautifully delivered by Steele with banjo accompaniment. The music is, of course, pre-recorded so some of the singing isn’t always as together as it might be.

Miller’s cat moves and behaves like a cat and she finds all the petulance and jealousy the part needs, gradually settling into happy collaboration. Manu gives us an engaging witch who commands the stage with her striking looks (red, purple and a really good hat) and fluid movement work.

The piece is, however, at least 10 minutes too long. Although the children I saw it with were keen to join in the interactive bits – shouting “whoosh” to launch the broomstick and supplying missing rhymes from the narrative – there was also a lot of restlessness, especially towards the end.

Susan Elkin