"A dazzling show"
"This is a stunning achievement. As well as some terrific songs, here's a show that doesn't try to gloss over the issue of morality. It stares death in the face, and laughs."
"Perhaps the best song is, in fact, a wickedly amusing number, Vouldn't It Be Nice? which taunts parents in the audience with daydreams of how perfect life would be if they didn't have to sacrifice themselves to the insatiable demands of their offspring. The sleek villain-in-chief, Katherine Kingsley's Grand High Witch, delivers the acerbic lyrics with a Garbo-esque snarl."
"This essential Roald Dahl musical warms your heart and chills your bones all at once"
"The National Theatre’s sparkling adaptation of Dahl’s story about a group of child-hating witches has the sardonic humour of Matilda and Paddington 2 and is as electrifying as a failed bid to untangle your broken fairy lights."
"Dave Malloy’s songs draw from such an eclectic musical palette – pop, Christian plainsong, 1940s showtune razzmatazz and African-inspired drumming – that each feels like a highlight in its own way."
"The National Theatre’s vivid, irreverent Roald Dahl adaptation is a hysterically funny triumph."
"Sure, it’s notionally aimed at families. But the National Theatre’s Roald Dahl adaptation ‘The Witches’ really is for everyone, (everyone over eight anyway). Because it’s quite easily the funniest new musical London has seen since at least ‘The Book of Mormon’."
"Bertie Caplan gives an adult-level, superbly charming performance as spirited hero Luke, while Cian Eagle-Service devours his big Fosse-style number as sweet-obsessed posh boy Bruno. Give them a decade and these boys are either going to be global celebrities or running the country."
"A rip-roaring, acid-tongued delight of a show."
"'We're not women, we're hell' is not a line you would expect at a family show, but Lyndsey Turner's production combines exuberant fun, quick-witted comedy and a positive attitude towards death to produce an entralling, clever and incredibly funny production."
"Lucy Kirkwood (book and lyrics) and Dave Malloy (music and lyrics) make a remarkable duo with huge wit and warmth, capturing the magic of Dahl's writing."
"The best new musical I’ve seen this year, hands down."
"There’s wonderful detail, and gags galore, in every corner of this enchanting show. When Luke shares his yearning to take risks, children pop up with casts and crutches, or wearing traffic cones. Later on, we see kids turned into a frozen painting and a Henry Hoover."
"A gobsmackingly great musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Witches, which takes the premise seriously – while perfectly balancing the scares with vivid, heart-warming and properly funny theatre."
"This terrific new musical, directed by Lyndsey Turner, it’s an absolute cracker of a show."
"Roald Dahl’s The Witches features a plucky kid, sinister strangers, sudden loss and a giant battle of good versus evil."
"Altogether bewitching."
"Dark new musical based on the Roald Dahl novel is a heady, mischievous brew that leaves you grinning."
"The dancing erupts into rapturous MGM spectacle for Bruno’s big sugar-rush song Bruno Sweet Bruno, which sees the cast decked out in candy colours and Eagle-Service – a phenomenal, pint-sized, triple-threat talent – all but bring the house down."
"The show is a potent potion: treacly dark and lip-lickingly delicious, pleasingly subversive, giddy with wit and invention."
"This is the Christmas show to beat."
"Forget the old adage 'never work with children or animals', this production has great fun with children *as* animals."
"A deliciously spiky supernatural tale that honours the dark streak in Roald Dahl's child-pleasing writing."