Squizzling snozzcumbers! What has us got here? Surely not a West End play for children and their families that is more than a cynical ploy to extort money over the festive season? Yes, David Wood's adaptation of Roald Dahl's tale of orphan Sophie and the lovable language-mangling, dream-blowing Big Friendly Giant is a scrumdumptious piece of theatre.
Sophie and the BFG, together with a little help from Her Royal Highness Her Majesty the Queen, save the world from the bone-crunching, flesh-guzzling, totally disgusterous, filthy old fizzwiggling giants who see small children as an ideal crunchy snackette.
It begins a little lamely with a naff framing device of a children's birthday party: the failure of the entertainer to show up means the children have to devise their own entertainment, and put on a play. But it quickly develops into a work that is self-consciously and confidently theatrical, all the more effective because it often allows you to see the strings. A company such as Improbable would not be ashamed of this offering.
Wood's production revels in Dahl's rich and funny language and its own unfettered invention. It makes clever use of music, lighting, puppetry (tiny figures and huge mannequins as well as shadow puppets) and perspective. The whole evening has a playful quality. Only the stage-school bearing of some of the young adults playing kids jars. But overall, it is a boisterously enjoyable couple of hours. It deserves to be the most gigantic hit.
· Until January 5. Box office: 020-7907 7024.
