Peppa Pig’s Best Day Ever, is a brand new live show based on Entertainment One’s (eOne) much loved animated TV series that most parents throughout the world will be very intimately familiar with. And we were there in a flash to witness Peppa’s big splash in the West End at the Duke of York’s Theatre.
‘Peppa’ was one of the first 20 words my son uttered and apparently I’m not the only parent to report this. Researchers at Liverpool University studied babies in 2000 UK families across Britain and discovered that Peppa is often one of the first words to be uttered by British Kids. Peppa has become part of our vocabulary. Study lead Michelle Peter said: “The words children are producing first tend to be social words, or words for people that are important in their lives” which means Peppa is pretty important to my little Londoner and I was excited to see what he was going to make of the Peppa Pig Live Show.
“Where’s Peppa?” He kept asking as we parked the pram (with a little help down the stairs from the theatre staff) and eagerly took our seats. Soon enough it was curtains up and he cooed in excitement at the sight of Peppa’s House where the whole porcine family is getting ready to go on an adventure. They pack themselves into the family car and head off on their trip (with a few mishaps along the way for good measure). Beware audience members sitting in the stalls of the burst pipe Mr Bull is trying to fix – the road is blocked and you may get splashed (literally – albeit very gently!).
We dive into caves and visit castles, we met tick tocking UV knights and saw a floating banquet of delights. There’s plenty of favourite childhood themes and characters from dinosaurs, dragons and ice-cream to the famous muddy puddles and given it is festive season there is a visit from Santa and snow cascades from the ceiling in the finale on to delighted audience members below.
This new live stage adaptation of Peppa Pig is produced by leading children’s theatre Fierylight, in partnership with eOne. The production is directed and adapted for theatre by Richard Lewis, and features music scores from BAFTA award-winning composer Mani Svavarsson.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Peppa Pig Live (there have been many different versions of the show) and it’s quite an apt anniversary given 2019 is the year of the pig in Chinese horoscope. Apparently the year of the pig predicted wealth and fortune and our little porky certainly delivered on both fronts. Peppa productions are hugely successful and have been enjoyed by over 1.5 million people in the UK alone. Peppa Pig Live has also toured throughout the US and Australia and played 8 consecutive West End Christmas seasons.
It is no doubt that Peppa Pig is not only a household name and one of the first words uttered by our children but also mega big business these days. With over 1000 licensees around the world, 3 BAFTA Awards for pre-school animation and a pipeline of new episodes delivering fresh content through to 2023, the global phenomenon continues to look bright for eOne’s popular little piggy.
Peppa Pig live is on at Duke of York’s Theatre in London until 5 January 2020. Tickets start at £12.50 for more info and to book visit the website here.