This is the Christmas show to beat – a deliciously spiky supernatural tale that honours the dark streak in Roald Dahl’s child-pleasing writing. It has a witty script from Lucy Kirkwood, jauntily rousing songs from Dave Malloy, and three fine adult comic performances that were nonetheless outdone by the astonishingly confident younger leads (Bertie Caplan and Cian Eagle-Service) on opening night.
There’s also great perspective work using clockwork rodents once our two young heroes are – spoiler alert – turned into mice. Forget WC Fields’s dictum not to work with children or animals: here director Lyndsey Turner has great fun with children *as* animals. It’s also a family show that adults can thoroughly enjoy.
