August in London, and there are often seats to fill in theatres – and in recent years they have been filled by families taking advantage of the kids week offer. One child goes free with every full-paying adult and up to two additional children get half-price tickets. It can put the big West End musicals and plays within reach of a family on a budget. Booking opens today and it certainly pays to get in quick, so here’s our selection of the 10 shows that you and the family shouldn’t miss. Booking details for all shows can be found here.
Top of the list is the RSC’s Matilda at the Cambridge theatre. Tim Minchin and Dennis Kelly’s musical version of the Roald Dahl favourite is actually better than the book, particularly in the way it gives the put-upon Matilda real agency to change her life for the better. Matthew Warchus’s production fizzes with energy, and the kids are great.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is at the Gielgud, and this is a terrific family night out if you’ve got older children. Cleverly staged and emotionally satisfying, Simon Stephens’s stage version is true to the book but never in awe of it.
The Lion King at the Lyceum has now been roaring in the West End for so long that Julie Taymor’s terrific production, which in its day was radical in its use of puppetry, can be overlooked. But this version of Hamlet in fur is till emotionally and theatrically satisfying, and it’s good for kids to be reminded that British theatre isn’t exclusively white.
Adapted from Michael Morpurgo’s novel, War Horse at the New London fits the bill nicely for anyone studying World War One at school. Shamelessly manipulative and imaginatively staged, Handspring’s life-size horse puppetry is a thing of real beauty.
The Woman in Black at the Fortune is the show to take the over-10s who think that theatre is boring and just for cissies. Guaranteed to have them jumping out of their skin, Stephen Mallatratt’s adaptation of Susan Hill’s novella is as spooky as it is ingenious.
Who doesn’t want to muck around with steam engines? The Railway Children at King’s Cross station turns E Nesbit’s Edwardian story of injustice righted into a right little whistle-stop charmer that’s been chuffing along very happily all year.
Hetty Feather at the Duke of York’s is Sally Cookson’s imaginative staging of the Jacqueline Wilson favourite about the foundling in search of her lost mother who joins a circus. It was overlong when I caught it, but it should be far tighter now, and it’s great to see circus taking centre stage in the West End.
The Three Little Pigs are going to have to oink loudly to fill the cavernous Palace theatre. This new show from musical duo, Stiles and Drewe, is as yet unseen but they did a fabulous job with the Ugly Duckling musical Honk!, and it’s great to see an original musical show for the over-threes rather than a best-selling picture book adaptation.
Adventures in Wonderland is an immersive experience at the Vaults. I’ve only seen the adult version, but I imagine that this pared-down version aimed at the over-fives is likely to be a deliciously different and memorable family experience.
It’s not for the very young but provided you are not too uptight about bad language, Billy Elliot the Musical at the Victoria Palace is a really terrific night out. A musical with both a heart, a brain and political oomph. Every boy should see it.
