The Baddies at Lighthouse, Poole Review
DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW
Reviewed by Helen Osborne
With two young children, I’m no stranger to the sublime literary duo of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, so I was really excited to be given the opportunity to take my 3 year old to enjoy a live performance of The Baddies at Lighthouse, Poole this afternoon.
Based on the smash-hit story by this fabulous duo, The Baddies is the latest laugh-out-loud adaptation to be brought live to the stage. It wasn’t one of the books that I was familiar with, so I was intrigued to find out more, but being a big fan of their work, I knew we were in for a treat.
We were seated in row F which gave us a great view of all of the action on stage. What I love about the Lighthouse, is that they have a ready supply of booster seats for the little ones to use, so you don’t have to worry that they won’t be able to see and also, there’s no reason for them to spend the entire performance on your lap either!
The Baddies tells the story of the very worst Baddies in the world (a witch, a troll and an ancient ghost), who simply adore being bad and fight over which of them is the worst! When a little girl moves into a nearby cottage, The Baddies roar, spook and cast wicked spells to try and scare her out of her wits. Do any of them succeed? You’ll have to watch to find out.
Freckle Productions, in association with the Royal Lyceum Theatre have done a wonderful job of adapting, what is essentially a short children’s book, to bring the story to life over the course of an hour, especially with the introduction of Mama Mouse (Lottie Mae O’Kill) telling this as a bedtime story to her 3 delightful mini mice. The songs by Joe Stilgoe are fabulous too and very catchy, engaging beautifully with the audience!
We loved how the characters from the book were brought to life and really looked the part, as their costumes were brilliantly designed really depicting the characters in the book.
The set was so cleverly designed, to brilliantly adapt to the storyline, with pretty seamless set changes.
Our favourite part of the show was the scene when the Witch’s cat, played by James Stirling, is brought to life. What a brilliant addition to the story, full of laughs!
We think the casting of the Ghost (James Stirling), Witch (Rosie Meek) and Troll (Nic James), was absolutely perfect. Each of them brought the story to life brilliantly. All had excellent singing voices too, which just added to a wonderful performance.
The performance is part of a national tour taking place between 5th February 2025 and 24th August 2025. Stopping off at Lighthouse Poole for one performance on Saturday 8th February and 3 further shows on Sunday 9th February, so there’s lots of opportunities to bring the family along for some great entertainment.
The show lasted for 1 hour (with no interval), which was the perfect performance time for a performance, such as this, aimed at all ages. The show is recommended for any age and there are even babe in arms tickets available for children under 12 months of age, via the website. All of the children in the audience were brilliantly behaved and completely engaged with the performance. There was plenty of opportunity for the kids to get involved too.
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves this afternoon and would highly recommend the show to everyone. With tickets for under 16’s costing £16.50 and £18.70 for adults, it’s great value for such a polished performance.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: Tickets cost £16.50 (under 16’s) and £18.70 adults
Buy Tickets from www.lighthousepoole.co.uk
Full Tour Dates: 5th February 2025 – 24th August 2025 details can be found at www.thebaddieslive.com
Address: Lighthouse, 21 Kingland Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1UG