A week before Christmas I was a little sceptical about taking the kids into town to fight through the Christmas shoppers but we had a surprising good journey and arrived at the Vaudeville Theatre relatively stress free.
We had a bit of a nightmare getting our massive buggy up the flight of stairs to the buggy park but once it was stored away we made our way to our seats to be greeted by the beautifully designed staging that had been made to look just like you have stepped into a page of the much loved story book of The Gruffalo.
Number five decided to have a melt down about the lack of satsumas in my bag but was promptly stopped when the lights went down and the performance started.
The cute character of the mouse was the first to take to the stage as she sets off on her journey through the woods cleverly outwitting the cheeky cockney fox, wise old owl and the super camp snake as she goes until her final encounter with the Gruffalo.
The audience are encouraged to join in with counting, singing and answering panto style questions which is perfect to keep the predominantly young audience engaged. At the end the big, bubbly character of the Gruffalo even comes down into the audience much to the delight of the children.
I had an age range of nine to a year with me and they all throughly enjoyed the whole show. They even added a few adult friendly jokes in to keep the parents amused.
I loved that they had added a Christmas twist to the end with the mouse wishing everyone a merry Christmas under a shower of pretty snow. For me this would make a wonderful Christmas treat for the whole family and something they will remember for years to come.
We were given tickets for the performance for the purpose of this review. They are all my own honest opinions.