From the Gruffalo to Dog Man: how to put children’s classics on the stage

A scene from the American touring production of Dog Man: the Musical, by TheaterWorksUSA. Photograph: Jeremy Daniel

From Paddington and the BFG to The Gruffalo’s Child, My Neighbour Totoro to The Tiger Who Came to Tea, there is no shortage of stage adaptations of children’s classics filling theatres at the moment.

This week it was announced that Dog Man, the half-canine crime fighter from Dav Pilkey’s bestselling graphic novels, will make his London theatre debut at the Southbank Centre next summer.