How do you turn a picture book that takes all of five minutes to read into a 50-minute theatre show? The problems are not entirely solved in this adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's delightful little modern classic. However, what the piece lacks in theatrical inspiration and originality, it makes up for in sheer charm.
When the little mouse goes into the dark, scary wood in search of nuts, it seems unlikely that she will come out alive. Lying in wait are the wily fox, the terrifying owl and the slippery snake, all of whom see the mouse as a snack on legs. But this mouse isn't stupid. She comes up with the Gruffalo, a truly frightening beast with terrible tusks and terrible claws who she claims is coming to meet her and who will gobble up fox, owl and snake. The Gruffalo is of course an invention - or is he? Can mouse outwit the most terrifying beast of all?
"Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail didn't last long in the deep, dark wood," the fox says threateningly at one point. But Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail are alive and well, at least in spirit, in this kind of cosy children's theatre that is full of wide-eyed adults pretending to be animals and using Listen with Mother voices. That said, the show actually gets better as it goes along; it includes some roaringly effective audience participation and a rather impressively camp snake. And in the end it delivers exactly what the young audience wants: a close re-creation of a book that they know and love.
You could argue that this makes for rather dull theatre, but in a year when the vast majority of Christmas shows are so exceptionally dark that you risk traumatising the youngest members of the family if you buy them a ticket, this at least offers a happier alternative for the under-fives. Mind you, the money might be better spent splashing out on Donaldson's latest picture book: The Smartest Giant in Town.
· Until January 11. Box office: 020-7478 0100.
