Over at the Unicorn, ’Twas The Night Before Christmas (until Dec 29, doesn’t quite come off. If you can’t quite make out what all of them are singing, no matter it’s loud enough to stun small people into submission for an hour. The return of Pins And Needles Productions’ adaptation of Father Christmas (until Jan 4, has Barry McCarthy as a pitch-perfect grumpy Santa, starting his ‘bloomin’ Christmas Eve’ with a leisurely breakfast and grumbling about the weather forecast before heading off for his big night’s work.īut it’s Claire Harvey’s puppet work and Jared Ashe’s turn as on-stage musician/foley artist that make this simple tale really magical.Īlso back is Seussical The Musical at the Arts Theatre (until Jan 5, .uk) –the brashly colourful, Grammy-nominated, Broadway-style reimagining of Horton Hears A Who!, with extra Dr Seuss characters and a plea for imaginative thinking thrown into the mix.Īll the performers, from Ste Clough as Horton to the Bird Girl chorus members, give it plenty of welly. More literary inspiration in the Lyric Hammersmith studio this time from Raymond Briggs. And the title song is disturbingly catchy. The Gruffalo, a favourite since its 2011 premiere, is on at the Lyric and there’s also a festive re-run of Scamp Theatre’s spirited take on Stick Man at Leicester Square Theatre (until Jan 5, Who’d have thought the world could be such a dangerous place for a twig? Sally Cookson directs the story with a cartoon-like energy: Alex Tosh (providing wonderfully varied musical accompaniment) and Cassie Vallance create a cast of loud and likeably roguish characters to menace Richard Kiess’s hapless Stick Man, until he’s saved by Santa.

In fact, Donaldson fans are well served this year.

The snail and the whale gruffalo