The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage is a great theatre adaptation of the famous book by C. S. Lewis. It’s a great show, with impressive visual aspects. Here’s my The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage theatre review.
Overview of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage is based on the famous book by C. S. Lewis. It’s a popular book that also has a popular film adaptation, so most people will be familiar with the story. If you already know the story, my The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage theatre review won’t give any plot spoilers. But if you’d rather keep the plot of the show a surprise, then read this review with caution!
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage follows the story of the four children: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. They’re evacuees in the Second World War, and they go to live in a large house owned by the Professor. In the stage show, the Professor has a cat called Schrödinger – in reference to Schrödinger’s cat.
Lucy and Edmund discover Narnia
Lucy is the first of the children to accidentally find the magical world of Narnia, at the back of a wardrobe. She meets a fawn called Mr Tumnus and has tea with him, before going back through the wardrobe to her family. At first, they don’t believe that there could be a magical world in the wardrobe. Edmund is the next to discover Narnia, and he meets the Wicked Witch, who calls herself the Queen of Narnia. She promises Edmund that he could be the prince of Narnia if he brings his siblings into Narnia and brings them to the Queen.
The four children in Narnia
Encouraged by the Professor, the four children end up going into Narnia together. Edmund tries to get them to follow him to the Queen, as he promised her. But instead, the children end up going to the Beavers’ house. Edmund escapes to go back to Queen, but discovers that she is evil. She wants to kill the children, because there is a famous prophecy in Narnia that one day four children will appear and take over the throne in Narnia.
Aslan and the Great Battle
Peter, Susan and Lucy meet more of Narnia’s creatures, and together they go to meet Aslan. Aslan is the God-like lion ruler in Narnia. Aslan helps bring Edmund back to his siblings. And the four siblings, with Aslan and the other creatures in Narnia, fight the wicked witch to bring goodness back to the land of Narnia.
They are victorious against the wicked witch. And Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy become Kings and Queens in Narnia.
The ending
Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy live in Narnia as Kings and Queens for many years, until one day they come across the old lamp post – next to where they first entered Narnia. They re-discover the wardrobe, and find themselves back in their old world, and back to being children. They go back to their old lives, full of the magical adventures they had in Narnia.
What I liked about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage
Staying true to the classic story
As a child, I loved the story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. So I was excited to see this production. I really liked that the stage version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe stayed true to the classic story.
The play on stage followed the story and didn’t miss out or change any vital parts. I’ve seen several stage adaptations of books or films that change major parts of the story. So I was a bit apprehensive about whether this stage version might do the same. But The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage was true to the classic story. And I really liked that.
Music and songs in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage is primarily a play, but there were a lot of music and songs throughout the performance. I was expecting it to just be a play – I wasn’t expecting there to be so much music and songs. But I liked it. I really liked the music. There were sections where a strong quartet was playing, and the music was lovely. The pipe played by Mr Tumnus was beautiful as well. The music really added to the atmosphere. You could generally see the musicians on stage, which was a nice touch as well.
The songs in the performance were mostly good as well. At times, they felt slightly unnecessary – especially Santa’s song at the beginning of the second half. But in general the songs were the good, and the performances were good. I’m not sure if the songs added much to the overall performance, but in general I did like the addition of lots of music and songs.
The Aslan puppet and man
The lion puppet of Aslan was really good. It was a really impressive puppet, with three puppeteers operating the lion puppet. They made the lion move really realistically.
As well as the lion puppet, Aslan the lion was also played by a man. The ‘man’ version of Aslan was wearing a big lion-like fur coat, and generally stood next to the lion puppet. At times, I wasn’t sure if I liked having the Aslan-lion puppet and also the Aslan-man next to it. When the Aslan-man was speaking, I wasn’t sure if I should be focussing on the Aslan-man or the Aslan-lion puppet. I sometimes felt like I would have preferred to just focus on the Aslan-lion puppet. But at other times it worked well to be able to see human emotions from Aslan, in a way that the puppet would never have been able to portray. So in general, I was ok with the choice to have both an Aslan-lion puppet and an Aslan-man. The Aslan-lion puppet was impressive on stage.
Set/staging and battles
There were some other great moments of the staging as well. The battle scenes in the second half were great. There were some great sword battles, with great choreography. Some of these scenes didn’t feel very appropriate for children – but as an adult, I thought the sword fighting and battle scenes were done really well. I liked the costumes and the movements of the wicked witch’s wolves, especially in the battle scenes. They had metal ‘claws’, which the performers were holding in their hands which meant they could move more easily on all-fours. It was impressive movements that worked well in the fight scenes.
There was also a great moment at the end of the first half when the wicked witch suddenly flies high into the air. There were huge white drapes all around her, cascading down to the floor. It was a really impressive scene and a great ending to the first half.
What I wasn’t so sure about
I liked seeing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage, but there were some aspects of the performance that I wasn’t so sure about.
Darkness on the stage
The main thing about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage that I wasn’t so sure about was how dark the stage was, and how un-colourful it was. I was a bit disappointed by this aspect.
At first, I thought that the early scenes set during World War Two were purposefully dark, so then when we got to Narnia it would be really light and bright and colourful. But when we got the first scene in Narnia, when Lucy first discovers it, I felt a bit disappointed. Narnia wasn’t colourful or bright or magical. There were some people dancing with big white coats on and holding white sheets – I think they were meant to be the snow. But there wasn’t much else that told us that we were now in Narnia, and not the Professor’s house. There weren’t many props, and the staging and set was fairly minimalist throughout.
I was expecting Narnia to be colourful and magic. But the stage background remained black throughout the whole show. I thought there could have been a projection or backdrop of snowy trees for the Narnia section – just something to add a bit more of a magical atmosphere.
The costumes of the Narnia creatures were fairly good, but again they weren’t colourful. All the costumes were earth-y colours, which were fairly dull against the black backdrop of the stage. The Beavers sort of looked like beavers, but they were very human-like beavers. I still enjoyed the show and a lot of the visuals, but I thought there was a missed opportunity for more colour and magic and props and impressive staging to really show the magical world of Narnia.
Children played by adults
The found children in Narnia were played by adults. I thought they were all fairly good, but I still wasn’t sure how well it worked to have the children played by adults. I thought Lucy was fairly good, and Peter and Susan also worked ok as children played by adults. But my main issue was Edmund.
He was a good actor – there was nothing wrong with how the actor playing Edmund played the role. I just found it a bit jarring to have an adult playing the Edmund character. Edmund is known for being a bit difficult, petulant and stroppy. And I didn’t think it worked to have an adult playing a character like this. When Edmund was having a bit of a tantrum at the wicked witch because he wanted more Turkish Delight, it felt weird that an adult man’s voice was having a tantrum about Turkish Delight. Scenes like this would have worked a lot better in a child’s voice, and not an adult.
Would I recommend The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage
My The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage theatre review is positive, so I would recommend The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage. If you like the book by C. S. Lewis, then I think you’ll enjoy this show. It’s faithful to the story, with some good staging and puppetry.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage is advertised as being suitable for children age 6 and over. However, I think it should be only for children aged 8-10 and over. It’s a long show to sit through for younger children, and there were some children in the audience that were being very disruptive to other audience members which was a shame. There are also some parts of the show that are not very child-friendly. There’s a scene in one of the battle scenes in the second half where there are skull-like masks and black cloaks – it could be a bit scary for some children. Some scenes with the witch and the wolves were a bit scary as well. So younger or more sensitive children might find some elements of this show a bit scary. But in general, it is suitable for older children, and an enjoyable show on stage.
Hope you enjoyed my The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on stage theatre review! Check out my other theatre reviews for more shows in the West End, across the UK and the world.
