Review: A memorable family day out at In the Night Garden Live

At lunchtime yesterday, I was walking around Parsons Green smiling. I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to take Baby Girl to In the Night Garden Live, and see her reaction when she saw Igglepiggle and his friends on stage.

In the Night Garden has become one of her favourite TV shows recently, and I was thrilled to have been invited to see the show live in Richmond Old Deer Park, where there are now four performances daily at 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm until Saturday 5 July.

My only concern before going to the show was that I had too high expectations after reading numerous fabulous reviews and even seeing Robbie Williams tweeting about the show earlier in June.

But it’s difficult to fault the familiar and lovable characters dancing around in a dream garden and singing familiar songs. So despite my high expectations, I was impressed with the fun and colourful costumes, video being projected onto the surrounding walls, and paper flowers falling from the ceiling, resulting in 22-month old Baby Girl being completely mesmerised.

In fact, I got all teary eyed already in the first few minutes when I saw Baby Girl standing up and shouting ‘Wow’ when Igglepiggle sailed onto the stage. She continued to stand throughout the performance, and lots of the toddlers joined in on the dance routines they knew from the TV episodes.

There were lots of clapping. Lots of shouting ‘bye, bye’ when characters walked off the stage, and overall, a very excited audience.

In the Night Garden Live really is a must-see show for older babies and toddlers – and for parents who love seeing their little ones’ faces light up with joy.

For me, the only challenge at this show was to leave the venue. Baby Girl was lying on the floor, screaming hysterically and shouting ‘more, more, more, more’ when the curtains closed. She couldn’t quite seem to believe that the fun was over for this time.

Running time is just under one hour and there is no interval. When I checked yesterday, there were still tickets available for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances in Richmond, and when you book tickets, you can also pre-book goody bags with books and toys worth £45 for £24 (available for £29 on the day of the show). You can also pre-book Meet the Character tickets, which we didn’t have, and I was advised there would be around 1-hour wait if we were to get one on the way out. The venue is a short walk from the car park across the road, where we were lucky to find parking easily.

If you miss the Richmond shows, you can still catch In the Night Garden Live in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow later this summer.

Tags: Children's theatre, In the Night Garden Live, London, Richmond, Summer events