Picture: Toby Mitchell
The Gruffalo’s Child continues at the Lyric Theatre, London until 7 January 2018.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
Show an endearing, caring dad trying to set boundaries for a wayward child. Add a bit of comfortable, pretend scary stuff and place it on a simple but versatile set. Spice it up with some upbeat music and you’ve got the Tall Stories engaging version of The Gruffalo’s Child.
Based on a picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler this show is a sequel to The Gruffalo. Both shows have been revived and toured several times. They seem to have acquired an ongoing shelf life although they still feel fresh and imaginative.
The distinctly unscary Gruffalo (Andrew Mudie, using a homely London vernacular accent) is telling his child (Sophie Alice) never to go into the Wild Wild Wood for fear of the Big Bad Mouse. But of course she does.
Many of the children in the audience are so familiar with the book that they mouth or chant the words as they’re spoken on stage.
Director Olivia Jacobs and her cast almost build this expectation into the action. Catriona Mackenzie as mouse/narrator, for example, often slickly interpolates lines such as “said the Gruffalo” to make the dialogue sound like the book.
Music (recorded) by Jon Fiber and Andy Shaw is mostly folksy with a ceilidh band-style accompaniment. Tuneful, accessible songs turn on old-fashioned dominant sevenths and there’s a very pretty 3/4 lullaby – the sort of melodies which stay with you afterwards and which audience children might remember.
Mackenzie delights. She is diminutive in stature but has enormous stage presence.
Sophie Alice is suitably child-like and adventurous and very appealing when she scampers back to her father’s protective arms.
As well as playing the Gruffalo, Mudie gives a first class series of nicely-voiced cameos as a camp snake, a slimy fox and a hilarious absent-minded owl.
It’s a strong show which seemed to grab every child in the audience at the performance I attended.
Susan Elkin
Tickets for The Gruffalo’s Child at the Lyric Theatre are available HERE.
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