Theatre Royal Haymarket, London
Recommend age 3+
What the kids said:
Three year old – ‘I want to see Sophie’s bedroom’
Six year old – ‘I thought the tiger would be really scary but he wasn’t. He was cool.’
This is the first show I took my teeny too and I was more than a little worried that, not only would she get bored, but she would be frighted of the giant tiger looming about five times the size of her on stage.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. She gave it her true three-year-old endorsement – ‘I want to see Sophies bedroom’ – which is what she asks to do when she really likes a person. This was her way of expressing how much she truly loved the show. That, and the fact that she didn’t ask to go for a wee once throughout the hour-long play, says it all.
This magical adaptation of the popular book was a real chocolate brownie of a show. It was warm, gooey, constantly delightful all the way through and everybody enjoyed it, including the parents.
They managed to extend the tale to make it last an hour, through the new found depth of the characters and a few extra little scenes. You could really feel how Sophie and her parents were feeling when the tiger came to visit, and while the focus was on fun and laughter, I felt their was a subtle message their for the children too.
And, let’s be honest, what child wouldn’t enjoy having a tiger come to visit them. And through this show, it really felt like one had.
If you can get tickets to go and watch this with the littles this summer, I would definitely recommend you do. It’s a great introduction to theatre for small people, and a fun show to see for the whole family.
Kids Theatre Reviews 