Press tickets for review

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Have you guessed? Yes! Zog has flown into Belgrade Theatre to capture a princess and it is a roaring success. Golden stars for all the cast!

Based on the book of the same name by children’s favourite, Julia Donaldson, with illustrations by Axel Scheffler, the stage adaptation from Freckle Productions is showing locally at Belgrade Theatre from 25th July to 30th July, nearing the end of their UK tour.

Filled with toe-tapping songs that will delight youngsters and plenty of audience engagement, this has been one of our daughters’ favourite theatre shows of this year (and she’s getting quite the connoisseur!). I definitely think it would be up there with her top three (I’ll let you take a guess what the other 2 might be!). At 21 months old, she was enamoured by the flying puppetry and the playful energy of Zog (Danny Hendrix).

It’s a family show where children of all ages are welcome, and even grown ups too. Focusing on the moral to never give up, it also touches the feels for parents of children starting school and there were elements that made me want to well up at how quickly my own daughter is growing.

The theatre show is a great preparation for school starters. Zog is desperate for that golden star (the lighting of the stars is real cute!) but he just can’t do it. With help from a wonderfully casted Pearl (Lois Glenister), he will soon learn to never give up and that practicing is key. Lois’ vocals are incredibly alike to the Zog short movie and her actions and presence is so on point.

Children will also delight in seeing the pink and blue dragons, Edwin and Ronnie. Eliza Waters plays a cheeky and funny pink dragon whilst Edwin (Ben Locke) is a little more brash yet equally funny.

There’s no Zog without Madam Dragon’s school so Madam Dragon is played by Louise Grayford. She leads the school with plenty of song, dance and encouragement – and still believes in Zog even when he’s not quite mastering things as quickly as the others. Louise engaged the children and I had to laugh when she told everyone to sit up straight at the beginning of the show and everyone (even us adults) obliged. Signs of a true teacher!

I visually enjoyed Zog and Sir Gadabout and Pearl flying around the world with a darkened stage and loved the songs that were included. Truth be told, the songs are kids show songs, so you’re not coming home and popping them on Spotify or probably even remembering their names, but they’re just the ticket when you’re sat enjoying the show tapping along.

There’s also some comedy popped in with the spelling of words with the letters P R A C T I C E, which also comes with a nice, upbeat tune. I’ll let you find out or guess what word they might’ve created out of the letters but not read aloud to make the adults chuckle. Us grown ups also found great humour from Sir Gadabout (Ben Locke). Ben absolutely smashed the daft knight role and brought plenty of laughs with the mannerisms.

We enjoyed Zog and would definitely recommend it for young children. I did wonder if my daughter would be afraid during parts where the dragons roared, but she was absolutely fine. We gave her a little prep beforehand and during the one quick loud roar, she roared back. I think the absolute perfect age for the show would be for school starter kids as it does great preparation for starting school and letting children know they’re not alone, but younger kids will love it too.

At the end of the show, the cast sing and dance and encourage the audience to do the same – it was wonderful to see so many children and adults joining in enthusiastically.

Zog was produced by Freckle, the same company that have created the stage show Stickman and Zog and the Flying Doctors. Based on this show alone, I do think the other two productions will be just as wonderful.

A fantastic show to keep kids entertained this summer holiday.

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Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
26 JUL – 30 JUL
Freckle Productions

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Music and Lyrics by Joe Stilgoe | Directed by Emma Kilbey
Designer Katie Sykes
Lighting Designer Ric Mountjoy
Musical Director Bobby Delaney
Choreographer Katie Beard
Orchestrations Paul Herbert
Puppetry Director Edie Edmundson