The Enormous Crocodile - The Musical

Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab (Composer), Suhayla El-Bushra, Tom Brady (Book & Lyrics), after Roald Dahl

The Roald Dahl Story Company, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Leeds Playhouse

Lowry, Salford

December 14, 2025-January 4, 2026; 60 mins

That's one enormous crocodile... Chelsea Da Silva plays the show's main mouth

Can I get a grown-up whinge out of the way first? It's one thing to be woken up by a small child at 6.30am on a Sunday morning - you can switch on Hey Duggee, give them a bowl of dry Rice Krispies and retreat to bed for an hour. Not just me, surely?

It’s another thing entirely to be up, dressed respectably and arriving at the theatre before 10am, with a beyond-excited child wanting all the merchandise, sweets, a drink and to have their picture taken, all at once.

Just as well then that The Enormous Crocodile – The Musical is such a crowd-pleaser. Apparently there were a few technical difficulties early on in the run (ironic, considering the Crocodile’s own problems with his “secret plans and clever tricks”) but at our performance, everything went swimmingly.

I’ve never tried to heft one of these huge modern puppet heads, but I imagine it takes a level of sustained muscle power not normally associated with acting. Kudos then to Chelsea Da Silva (the Crocodile) for manoeuvring the enormous head with such panache around Fly Davis’ light-touch jungle set.

Precious Abimbola (Trunky the elephant) and Jordan Eskeisa (Humpy Rumpy the Hippopotamus) are equally adept with their puppets; Ciara Hudson as the Roly Poly Bird and Marienella Phillips as Muggle Wump the Monkey have a slightly easier time of it, costume-wise, but Emily Lim and Toby Olie ’s clean but constantly moving direction keep them on their toes.

There is just a hint of rehearsal room brainstorm about one or two of the scenes. The sexily French-accented escargots are great, but why? The farting hippo is, of course, a natural for small children, but feels like a cheap laugh on occasion. And there’s a whole section involving an itching plant which is neither proper slapstick nor an integral part of the story.

By contrast there’s a Masterchef-inspired song about the various culinary possibilities of small children which is firmly aimed at the adults and is excellent; we particularly enjoyed the prospect of chubby thigh sashimi.

There's a proper nod to panto when the children are invited to pelt the croc with (light, spongy) peanuts; despite stern instructions to return them I imagine that quite a few found their way into bags and pockets.

All Christmas shows live or die by their relationship with the children in the audience. The Enormous Crocodile has a head start, because of course the more children there are, the more potential meals for a hungry reptile. There was a great deal of enthusiastic call and response though, disappointingly, no “he’s behind you!” But then, I’m an old-fashioned panto addict...

The death this week of one of the greatest of all pantomime dames, Stanley Baxter, brought into sharp focus our weird and wonderful Christmas show traditions. The Enormous Crocodile is a gentle, nursery slope introduction to this fine theatrical heritage. Does it succeed? Oh yes it does!

More info and tickets here