Eventim Apollo Theatre, London – until 30th August 2025
Reviewed by Ava Clarkson
3***
The Eventim Apollo is used to being the venue for large crowds, big names and big productions. Opened in 1932, this Art Deco venue seats 3,487 and has seen the likes of The Beatles, Bob Marley and BBC’s Live at the Apollo grace its stage. Tonight in a flurry of black and white spots, the musical version of Dodie Smith’s much loved book, The 101 Dalmatians, comes to life.
This new musical has been written by Douglas Hodge and Johnny McKnight from a stage adaptation by Zinnie Harris and directed by Bill Buckhurst. The musical version stays true to the storyline with the main character and villain of the play, Cruella De Vil (Sydnie Christmas) stealing all the puppies in town to make a fur coat. She is helped in her plan by her hapless nephews Casper (Jeff Brazier) and Jasper (Aston Merrygold) as they target local couple Danielle (Laura Baldwin) and Tom (Samuel Thomas) as their dogs Perdi (Emma Thornett) and Pongo (Linford Johnson) have 15 adorable dalmatian puppies.
The opening number “Take me home” introduces us to the amazing puppets designed by Jimmy Grimes. They are bright and colorful and each operated individually by a singing performer. The location of the dog’s home is where we meet Danielle, who rescues Perdi from the pound. The hand controlled dalmatian puppets move fluidly around the stage and are surprisingly expressive in their movements. The children in the audience delight in the “bum sniffing” as each dog meets each other and ask them to “check out the under-carriage”.
We are soon introduced to the villain of the story – Cruella. Sydnie Christmas is outstanding in this role. The previous Britain’s Got Talent winner in 2024, she owns the stage with her baddie in animal print campness. She is loud and brash and her voice is breathtaking. Her facial expressions, the determined movement around the stage and her over-the-top take on Cruella is the stand out performance of the show. Unfortunately her nephews appear lost on stage and child-like in a foolish and silly kind of way. Their jokes seemed ineffective and fell flat on the audience.
The set and the costumes designed by David Woodhead and Sarah Mercade are rich in colour and move easily between Danielle and Tom’s comfy home, to Cruella’s lair via a charming country pub setting “The Hair of the Dog”. Scenes where Cruella drives and crashes her car on stage and a group of dogs on a roof looking for the stolen puppies are clever in their delivery and the props are a triumph throughout.
As the show progresses, we are sung the story by the puppeteers. There are no catchy tunes and the words are hard to understand. This tarnishes the second half throughout to the point it is difficult to follow and we are reliant solely on the movement around the stage. The choreography by Lucy Hind guides us as we see the chaos 101 puppies bring. The puppeteers are skillful in their craft, as they weave the giant dogs between each other, leaping and moving with a dog-like demeanour.
As the show concludes, the evil Cruella is defeated in spectacular on stage fashion and the puppies are returned to their rightful place. As a bonus treat, a beautiful doe-eyed real life puppy is brought briefly on stage to the oo’s and ah’s of the entire audience.
This production is set to run for 6 weeks. If you are a fan of the book, animated film or the 1996 Disney film, the story is true to the script. The children in the audience were captivated, indeed a small child in front of me was close to tears and then full of joy leaping off his seat. This does not have the pedigree to become a long running west end play, the production seemed overshadowed by the lack of understanding the singing, the songs were not catchy and the cast seemed laboured at times. But if you wanted to stray in and see a light hearted show with an outstanding thoroughbred villain, this is the pawfect night out.