James and The Giant Peach at Northern Stage

If you want an alternative to the standard 'he's behind you' Christmas offering then James and the Giant Peach  Northern Stage should be your first port of call.

What can I say? Wow ! The show with absolutely amazing we were enthralled from start to finish with scooters and sharks and skipping and dancing and songs and giant jellyfish and bubbles and music and tap dancing!!! It was a feast of sensory delight. There are so many wonderful things about the show that it is hard to convey my excitement in words. It was fantastic and  an absolute joy to see Northern Stage using both stage 1 and Stage 2 spaces to create an enormous set with seating 'in the round'

This show is very immersive, pulling the audience into the performance and including them in activities so I would definitely try to get seats close to the front or in the side stage seating. 

There are giant peaches, like really giant peaches, ones that start of the size of a tennis ball and get bigger and bigger and bigger until you think the cast are going to bring out a hot air balloon! 

There are lovely songs a great musical score and the brilliant choreography makes you want to get up and dance, in fact Peanut did at one point jump up to do a little jig. I felt guilt telling her to sit down!   Th show is filled with fabulous acting to be honest  I could blather on all day about how amazing I thought it was.

The story follows pretty much true Roald Dahl's book and I think Roald Dahl himself would have been up on his feet and would have approved fully of the direction, story telling and clever use of stage and props. The show is directed by Mark Calvert 

Photo credits Topher Mcgrillis

Students from Newcastle University offered a lovely supporting performance  and we each loved different characters, I was fond of Mr Earth Worm and the Aunts, Peanut loved Miss Spider for her brilliant dancing and elegance and The Golden Child liked James, who offered just the right balance of making me want to cry, cheer, and  jump up to hug him but the best bit according to the golden child was the Jelly fish!

This show won't fail to impress anybody who goes to see you it, it's a real foot tapper and I would say on par with any West End musicals that I've seen. The performance is a brilliant the musical score is awesome   the story is a lovely heartwarming tale of making friends and no longer being lonely. With excellent excellent use of props stage set and lighting you should definitely go and see this as soon as possible, get booked up, get tickets close to the front if you can and you can be part of saving  the giant peach , swimming with the jellyfish and the sharks and the Octopus's!

I promise you will not regret buying tickets for this show you can book online or by calling the Box Office on 0191 2305151and you can see more images from the show here 

We were given tickets in exchange for an honest review of the show, all opinions are our own