Will Tucket’s sweet, miniature and modest dance drama version, which premiered at the Royal Opera House in 2002, is getting its second outing in the West End and would be a good choice if you were looking for a Christmas treat and wanted to introduce a very young child to dance. Kenneth Graham (1859-1932) wrote the story for his son who was five; and by the time it was published in 1908 the boy was eight.
Children will enjoy this version much more if they have read the novel first .The show, which lasts just 90 minutes is a mixture of mime, song, dance, carols and puppetry. There is a magical moment when snowflakes fall in the auditorium.
The comic high spot is provided by Ewan Wardrop whose hefty gaoler’s daughter is very much in the pantomime dame tradition and he and Cris Penfold, (a sprightly Toad), are very amusing when they Morris dance together. Wardrop is also funny as a poncey Teddy Boy weasel. The narrator is Alan Titchmarsh, who is making his debut as an actor and often sounds like Alan Bennett. The elegiac text is by the former Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion.