Will Tuckett’s Olivier Award-winning The Wind In The Willows will return to the West End this Christmas, playing an eight week season at the Vaudeville Theatre from 26 November.
Now 11 years since the popular Royal Opera House production premiered in 2003 at the venue’s intimate Linbury Studio Theatre, the show last year followed its huge success at the Covent Garden institution to make its West End debut at the Duchess Theatre.
Picking up the Best Family And Entertainment Olivier Award at this year’s ceremony, world famous dancer Tuckett’s colourful family show is based on Kenneth Grahame’s timeless classic and transports audiences to the woodland home of the hot-headed Toad, debonair Ratty, shy Mole and wise Badger.
Featuring direction and choreography by Tuckett, narration by former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion and puppet design by War Horse’s Toby Olié, the show sees the adventures of these four friends retold through dance, song, music and puppetry.
Writing about the show’s West End debut last year, Official London Theatre’s Kate Stanbury described it as “a production full of energy”, praising its imaginative spirit, saying: “From a dusty cluttered loft, an imaginative world emerges. A striped cloth becomes a river. An upturned chair becomes a prison. A wardrobe becomes a carriage. And a stove becomes a steam engine.”
Casting for the production, which will play over the Christmas period to 15 January, is yet to be announced.