The Gruffalo's Child, July 08, 2011

 The Gruffalo's Child ****

• Kate Herbert
• From: Herald Sun
• July 08, 2011 12:00AM

THE GRUFFALO'S CHILD, Playhouse, the Arts Centre, until July 9, 2011

THE Gruffalo's Child is as daffy and entertaining as The Gruffalo, its musical predecessor.

And this musical adaptation of the sequel book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler makes another deliciously, playfully, scary hour for kids from four to about seven years.

Though nothing beats one's introduction to the imaginative world of monsters, predators and victims of the original Gruffalo story, once again the songs are cute and tuneful, the characters quirky and the performers charming and versatile.

Stephen Anderson plays the gruff Gruffalo, and again delights us with his Cockney conman Fox, sleazy Spanish Snake and pompous Owl.

Crystal Hegedis plays a perky Mouse and Chandel Brandimarti is cute and cheeky as the Gruffalo's Child, who disobeys her Gruffalo daddy to go alone at night into the deep, dark wood to hunt the Big, Bad Mouse.

The children giggle at the playful, physical comedy, squeal at the gently scary bits and call out familiar rhymes from their favourite book.

And the littlies seem to understand the morality of this tale that says that home is safe, strange places and people can be dangerous and always listen to daddy. They are not bad sentiments.

Stars rating: * * * *