The Lowry theatre.<\/a><\/p>\nRoald Dahl’s mischievous short story may not seem the obvious choice to be turned into a musical, but it has become a most magical, as well as hilarious, production in the hands of an abundantly talented cast and crew here.<\/p>\n
Taking my two sons along, aged 5 and 10, I didn’t really know what to expect, but we were all captivated by the action that unfolded.<\/p>\n
The show faithfully tells the wacky Dahl story of an Enormous Crocodile weaving his way through the jungle in search of some yummy little children to eat, but is brought to life with wonderfully inventive staging, puppetry and performance here.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1_DBR_MEN_141225Lowry.jpg\")
A brilliant ensemble cast at The Enormous Crocodile(Image: Danny Kaan)<\/p>\n
Chelsea Da Silva is brilliant as the eponymous crocodile, her sweet voice somehow the perfect tone for the giant croc waddling through the jungle in search of “delicious little fingers and squidgy podgy knees”. The croc’s plan can only be thwarted thanks to a fun cast of jungle creatures who need to find their courage to stop the greedy brute.<\/p>\n
The way the little kids are brought to life on stage had me in stitches, but then the ensemble cast are all so good in every scene I have to mention them all here. Precious Abimbola is Trunky the Elephant, Jordan Eskeisa as Humpy Rumpy the Hippopotamus, Ciara Hudson as Roly Poly Bird, Marienella Phillips as Muggle Wump the Monkey and Ren\u00e9 Francalanza as Swing.<\/p>\n
I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it all half as much as I did, with brilliant songs from Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab and lyrics by Suhayla El-Bushra, and additional music and lyrics by Tom Brady. I even left singing along to the final, absurd song, trilling “sizzle like a sausage” all the way home.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_DBR_MEN_141225Lowry_03.jpg\")
The Enormous Crocodile – the musical at The Lowry. Pictured Chelsea Da Silva (The Enormous Crocodile)(Image: Danny Kaan)<\/p>\n
Kids will also love a final interactive part they all play, throwing bouncy peanuts at that naughty crocodile amid shrieks of laughter and delight that is worth the ticket price alone for parents. It also plays as a single 60 minute performance so no need for all the faff of getting kids in and out for an interval.<\/p>\n
The best part though for parents? Ticket prices are from just \u00a312.50 meaning you can get a family of four in for \u00a350 over the next week (they go up slightly once the school holidays start but even then you can get a family ticket for \u00a364). You’d struggle to get a SINGLE ticket at some shows for that sort of price.<\/p>\n
I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that this is a show worthy of your money. Every moment is a joy.<\/p>\n
Oh, and if you do head along make sure you book your FREE tickets to the Quentin Blake exhibition on at the Lowry afterwards. It’s a brilliant place for your kids’ imagination to run wild – and you can see more of how The Enormous Crocodile came to life through illustrations on the walls.<\/p>\n
The Enormous Crocodile – the musical is at The Lowry Quays Theatre until Sunday, January 4.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every moment is a joy in The Enormous Crocodile, writes Dianne BourneThoroughly enthralling – Chelsea Da Silva as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,485,31228,32801,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-634219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-manchester-family","13":"tag-manchester-theatre","14":"tag-the-lowry-theatre-and-arts-centre","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115724406563977136","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1_DBR_MEN_141225Lowry_04.jpg\")
Thoroughly enthralling – Chelsea Da Silva as The Enormous Crocodile and Precious Abimbola as Trunky the Elephant(Image: Danny Kaan)<\/p>\n