REVIEW: Room On The Broom, Lyric Theatre ✭✭✭✭

David Garrud, Emma MacLennan, Daniel Foxsmith and Yvette Clutterbuck aboard the broom. Photo: Helen Warner Room On The Broom, based on the picture book of the same name by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler flew into the Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue today to cast a magical spell over its young audience.

Presented by theatre company Tall Stories, this 55 minute show was an absolute delight, and had the audience aged 3+ hooked from start to finish.

Room On The Broom tells the story of a friendly witch (Yvette Clutterbuck), her cat (Emma MacLennan) a dog and a frog (David Garrud) and a bird (Daniel Foxsmith) who take to the skies on a broom and face a fearsome dragon  (Daniel Foxsmith) in this magical, musical adventure. Room On The Broom is a colourful and beautifully staged telling of a story that many youngsters present in the audience knew intimately. One youngster sitting next to me knew large slabs of the text and recited along as the show proceeded, utterly enthralled at the magic taking place on stage.

Composers Jon Fiber and Andy Shaw have created some great songs that help this motely crew zoom across the skies getting the young audience participating with glee.

Performing to children is never an easy feat. Short attention spans can kill a show dead if what's on offer doesn't keep the young audience occupied. I'm happy to say that Room On The Broom kept the youngsters attention from start to finish with performance magic from the cast and the magic woven by the creative team including Olivia Jacobs (Director), Morgan Large (Designer), Yvonne Stone (Puppet Designer), and Lighting Designer (James Whiteside).

It was great to see a new generation of potential theatre goers experiencing the magic of a live show. Tall Stories deserve great kudos for iggety, ziggety, zaggerty, zooming their way into young hearts!