Watching The Baddies at Cadogan Hall Theatre

[Ad- gifted experience] The Baddies is a very popular children’s book written and illustrated by Julia Donaldson, which has been turned into an hour long stage performance! We went along to the show at Cadogan Hall Theatre, which was a new theatre for us. There is a main hall, where they had a background for pictures and a little stand selling The Baddies book, along with other items from other books written by the same author. There was also a little bar and a lot of seating – with plenty of options for snacks for children.

The theatre hall itself was also very comfortable, with great seating, and the majority of them had a fantastic view of the stage. The Baddies has five actors total, three of which start out as some mice and turn into the Baddies as time progresses. It’s a lovely children’s story about manors, being brave, and not needing to be a bad person. The stage itself was simple at first, as it’s a wide stage without sides that the actors can disappear behind. Instead, they moved big stage pieces on and off the stage, pulling apart the background and transforming the items they brought out. It’s all during dances, so feels natural and fun!

The actors in The Baddies were fantastic. They could sing, dance and act. A lot of them felt like Broadway performers; throwing their voices and dancing their hearts out. There were actually a lot of dances and singing moments! As this is a children’s play, there are also moments where they call out to the audience, asking them to move their hands along with them and shout back at specific bits, which does keep little ones entertained. Their costumes also very much impressed me, as they looked like cartoon characters!

There is a use of puppets in The Baddies, which I always quite enjoy. This was with a cat puppet, that half-way through their appearance, actually becomes an actor and dances a bit, giving a little perspective into the cat’s thoughts themselves, before returning to the general story. At the end of the play, I really enjoyed the sort of wrap-up song, which contained lines from all of the other songs that they have song throughout the story, giving you an overview of the play you’ve just watched. It was full of talent! It’s a great show for little ones, full of life.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!