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I usually attend children’s shows with some trepidation – is the music going to be unbearably cheesy (which I have to forgive because kids, it seems, love that)? Is it going to put me to sleep with laboured repetition (which kids, it seems, delight in)? This one lives up to the claim ‘for all ages’ more than any children’s play I’ve seen in a long time.

Adapted from the hugely popular picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, this production of the Gruffalo is delightful, funny and populated with great characters. The songs (based largely on lines from the book) didn’t make me cringe and yet still manage to be lively and fun for young children. There is subtle, wry humour for the mums and dads.

In case you’re not familiar with the book: a mouse is searching for nuts in the forest and has to use her quick wits to escape from predators she meets on the way (fox, owl, then snake). She hoodwinks them by telling them she is waiting for the Gruffalo, a huge, black-tongued, tusked, purple-spined creature whose favourite food is… roasted fox – owl ice cream – scrambled snake. They each scamper off in fright and the mouse is delighted to see such fearsome animals run away from the threat of an imaginary creature. However, when she discovers to her astonishment that there really is a Gruffalo, she must once again trick her predator out of eating her for dinner. 

The characters have been adapted from the book and fleshed out with delightful quirks and inventive costumes: the Owl has flying goggles (making him look particularly owlish) and a preoccupation with recruiting for the RAF; the Fox sports a cheese-cutter and cockney lilt; the Snake is a slinky Mexican dancer with maracas.

The only character with a traditional costume is, naturally, the Gruffalo, in an elaborate monster bodysuit. A simple set of stylised trees and mysterious lighting create a magical storybook atmosphere. 

The actors are what really make the show a winner. Mouse (Crystal Hegedis) is cute as a button with plenty of heart, the Gruffalo (Simon van der Stap) is a big scary dope and my favourites have to be the idiosyncratic characters played by Stephen Anderson: the Fox, the Owl and the Snake.

Van der Strap and Anderson take turns at being the over-enthusiastic narrator (who keeps interfering with the storyline and irritating the other characters). The playful choreography and sound effects allow all three to demonstrate their physical talents and comic timing.

A couple of very young audience members were frightened at the start and had to leave, partly because it was a spooky forest scene, but also partly, I think, because it was unnecessarily loud. In fact I would suggest that the sound be turned down a fraction just on the voice mics, to avoid grating distortion, which made my ears rattle from time to time.

Being on a weekday, it was mostly pre-schoolers at the session we went to, most of whom seemed to be enthralled; my 8-year-old also enjoyed the show, so it’s suitable for school-age too. All enthusiastically joined in the participatory prompts from the Mouse to growl like a Gruffalo and yell out helpful pointers.
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Adults who would like 50 minutes of escapism should take themselves off to The Gruffalo. You don’t need an accompanying child to enjoy this delightful tale of a hungry mouse in search of a nice hazelnut who has to use imagination and fast thinking to ward off predators. 

This musical adaptation of the award-winning book by Julie Donaldson and Axel Scheffler really deserves all the glowing comments quoted in its publicity.  It is a “big, musical monster of a show” despite being simply staged.  

The Gruffalo has great production values and a talented cast of three. In Tauranga they kept the predominantly young audience riveted and the excellent interaction with the audience meant that the mouse got loud vocal support from the children whenever it was required.

The set and lighting create a believable and magical ‘deep dark wood.’   The comedy is pitched to appeal to a range of ages, so everyone from the three year olds to the more aged get to chuckle at the humour. 

The show “is a little bit scary,” to quote a three year old member of the audience, but the characters of the Fox, the Owl and the Snake are humorous and entertaining.  These three roles (performed by the one actor) are great fun with the fox played as a smart cockney, the owl as a Royal Air Force flying ace, and the snake as a vain Mexican dandy.  

The terrifying Gruffalo, looks just like his picture in the book, but he is scared by the smart little mouse and flees out into the audience in the hope that the children will protect it. 

Parents and grandparents, gather up your three to seven year olds and get them to The Gruffalo to be immersed in a delightful, charming and totally entertaining world.
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Unlike the vociferous and excited youngsters who filled the stalls of The Opera House at the second of three hour-long showings of The Gruffalo on Saturday, I didn’t know ‘there’s no such thing as a gruffalo’ until one sat down right in front of me.

This highly popular children’s picture book has been turned, as Mouse says in the introduction, into a big musical monster of a show. It is produced by Australia’s Christine Dunstan Productions and is now racing through the North Island on a punishing tour of some of the major centres.

Actually, Mouse is exaggerating. While there are songs, it isn’t – mercifully – a big show despite being performed in too large a theatre. It’s a funny one, an energetically performed one, a thoroughly entertaining one, and it must be faithful to the original book because the audience on Saturday, who seemed to know it backwards, wouldn’t have stood for it if it had been changed.

Crystal Hegedis plays Mouse with a chirpy confidence until Mouse has to go into the deep dark wood to look for nuts and the dangers of the unknown become apparent. Slowly Mouse learns to face the dangers with confidence and it’s a beautifully told lesson that everyone has to learn throughout life.

The dangers are Fox (a Cockney wide boy), Owl (a flying ace and member of the Woodland Air Force Club), and Snake (a slick Latin American maracas player). All of them are afraid of the mythical gruffalo. They are played with a bristling comic energy by Stephen Anderson. The narrator (and later the not-so scary gruffalo) is played by Simon van der Stap.

There are some good lines (‘Of course it’s a mouse, it’s wearing cargo pants!’), lots of audience participation of the traditional kind, some cheerful and amusing songs, and knock-about comedy, and it exudes charm, fun, and a winning simplicity.
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Unlike most of the young audience, I was not very familiar with Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s picture book before I saw this show but that doesn’t matter.

This Tall Stories (Britain) adaptation of their wonderfully wrought tale comes across clearly, if a little impersonally, in a simply-staged, radio-mic’d, whistle-stop tour of large North Island venues, courtesy Australia’s Christine Dunstan Productions.

To say Mouse is out to lunch, in the deep dark wood, is not to say she can’t look after herself when she finds more than nuts on her quest. Sure she thinks it might be fun to search for a monster too, but that question of lunch – of who might be having whom for lunch – keeps coming up.  

First a Fox, characterised as a cockney wide-boy, invites Mouse to lunch in his underground house. To get out of it diplomatically, she pretends she has a prior engagement with … with … “The Gruffalo!” shouts her audience. She is then obliged to describe some of its characteristics to back up her fanciful story.

Likewise when a raffish Owl, then a Spanish (or is he Mexican?) Rattle Snake, fancies Mouse for lunch … And so the myth of the Gruffalo grows. But there’s no such thing as a Gruffalo, don’t you know … Except when there is. And the Gruffalo is hungry too …

Crystal Hegedis expresses a full range of states in Mouse, from timid to adventurous, innocent to inventive, fearful to happy and full of beans (well, nuts). All children – and adults too – will identify.

Stephen Anderson plays all the predators with comedic relish and shares the narration with Simon van der Stap, who then manifests the Gruffalo. They work like clockwork as a team and pitch the predators and Gruffalo with exactly the right degree of scariness to delight the young audience.

The odd theatrical in-joke (e.g. “He’s a horror to work with”) has been interpolated, presumably to keep jaded adults amused. Sometimes the level of child-chatter in the audience may lead us to think interest is flagging but far from it: it’s the story they’re talking about, and their responses at key moments prove they are fully engaged.

As directed by Olivia Jacobs, this highly imaginative adventure story ticks all the boxes for children growing a sense of themselves in a bigger world that promises much and is sometimes scary. Those who already know the story will love it; those who don’t will want to know more. If you’re in New Plymouth, Tauranga, Hamilton or Auckland (North Shore or South) – click here for dates and venues – avail yourselves.   
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