Ballet Shoes Reviews – National Theatre London [Updated]

"I’d recommend this Christmas show to absolutely anyone" (2025)

"This playful adaptation of Noel Streatfeild’s Ballet Shoes at the National Theatre is slick and soulful — I wept happy tears"

"... judging by this wildly skilful and imaginative production, Ballet Shoes is a flaming masterpiece. Yes, I’m late to the party. But this is the sort of show you can recommend to absolutely anyone, or anyone from the age of seven upwards."

"It was a critical and commercial smash last year too. But if anything, Katy Rudd’s handsomely playful production of Kendall Feaver’s adaptation works even better second time round."

"Rudd and co throw everything at making this urban fairytale come alive."

"It’s a real yarn, a real tearjerker and a real laugh, often all at once when Justin Salinger plays one his five authority-figure roles"

"... Nina Cassells as the wannabe actress Pauline, Sienna Arif-Knights as the wannabe mechanic Petrova and Scarlett Monahan as the wannabe ballerina Posy all impress."

"This grown-up boy wept happy tears."

"Gung-ho warmth" (2025)

"The return of this adaptation of a children’s classic book is a thrilling delight"

"Hooray, it’s back! This adaptation of Noel Streatfield’s no-nonsense, serio-comic 1936 children’s classic blew me away at the National last year and now it’s returned, mostly recast and slightly tinkered with at the edges. The story... thrills again with its spry visual ingenuity and gung-ho warmth."

"Director Katy Rudd fills the auditorium with delight"

"The box-of tricks set confirmed Frankie Bradshaw as one of our most ingenious designers last year and the choreography by Ellen Kane remains a joy."

"The big set pieces here are hilarious whether or not you get the references to Bauhaus ballet and Peter Brook’s Midsummer Night’s Dream."

"There is an aching tenderness to Lucas’s performance as Sylvia – whose own childhood was overtaken by responsibility – and Nicol’s as the staunchly Christian but infinitely adaptable Nana. The three young leads work beautifully if antagonistically together"

"This is a splendid piece of inventive theatre that’s also great family entertainment. Its encore is deserved."

"Returning for 2025 with an all-new cast, the NT’s adaptation of the classic kids’ novel is a proper all-ages seasonal treat" (2025)

"Are you looking for something fuzzy to warm your heart this Christmastime? Then boy does the National Theatre have the show for you."

"Frankie Bradshaw’s beautiful set and props are responsible for a lot of the magic."

"If this sounds like it might be a serious play about a sad sack group of orphans, worry not. Ballet Shoes is packed with laughs dispatched through many clever and zingy one liners from Feaver, along with the occasional bit of slapstick."

"It’s not exactly high stakes – about the worst thing to happen is one sister missing an important appointment – and ever so occasionally Ballet Shoes veers toward worthy territory."

"... this is a play that children will love, but adults will adore it just as much."

"... at its core it is a heartwarming, joyful tale, packed with characters you can root for. And it’s funny. Ballet Shoes is a perfect Christmas show"

"Nimble and twinkling" (2025)

"Anoushka Lucas stars in the return of the hit show based on Noel Streatfeild’s beloved children’s book"

"Back for a second Christmas with some fresh casting, Kendall Feaver’s adaptation of the much-loved 1936 children’s novel by Noel Streatfeild is as nimble and twinkling as any dainty dancer’s fleet, satin-slippered feet. Directed by Katy Rudd, it’s a show suffused with stagey pizzazz"

"... while it’s heady with the whiff of greasepaint, it also has grit.... Joyously, the results are neither preachy, nor twee."

"Their sibling bond is as tender and touching as it is furious and spiky – which, as any sister with sisters will tell you, is pleasingly authentic."

"... every one of the performers brings an attention to detail and an unfussy sincerity to characters that are boldly drawn, yet rich in satisfying texture."

"Bravo – this superlative adaptation never puts a foot wrong" (2024)

"This wonderful show is suffused with gung-ho spirit, exuberance and larky wit"

"When I was a boy I thought Ballet Shoes was for girls: a story of poor strivers desperate to don a tutu. This delicious show about three female foundlings forging their own identities, and a makeshift family, in a house full of oddballs in interwar London absolutely bowled me over. Based on Noel Streatfeild’s 1936 novel but tweaked and modernised by adapter Kendall Feaver, it’s suffused with gung-ho spirit, exuberance and larky wit."

"Katy Rudd’s production may not have the dazzle and snark of last year’s NT Christmas hit, The Witches, but in its celebration of plucky women and old-school values – personal and theatrical – it never puts a foot wrong."

"I feared Ballet Shoes would feel old fashioned. Growing up, my sister and her friends loved it, while boys shunned it. I’m glad to finally make its acquaintance in this superlative staging. No notes. Bravo."

"If you see one show this Christmas season, make it the effusive, lovable Ballet Shoes at the National Theatre" (2024)

"Although the name Ballet Shoes might conjure up visions of pastel pink sweetness, there’s nothing overly sugary about the National Theatre’s gorgeous, gutsy family Christmas show. Fans of Noel Streatfeild’s 1936 book of the same name will already know it as an ahead-of-its-time story of a family defined by shared love and economic struggle, not biology. But here, director Katy Rudd steers this tale into the present day, exposing the sinewy tensions underneath this much-loved tale."

"Award-winning Australian playwright Kendall Feaver’s ingenious adaptation holds to the structure and characters that made the original book so popular with generations of children, while heightening its tensions and embellishing it with punchy gestures to the present day."

"Ballet Shoes is as delicately balanced as a dancer en pointe as it leaps between its period setting and the present, finding ways to diversify and complexify this story in ways that never feel lazy or jarring. It’s a Christmas treat for every possible kind of family – as long as they feel the pull of the theatre even a fraction as much as these stage-obsessed sisters."

"A playful, graceful adaptation – and a palpable hit" (2024)

"This first ever stage adaptation of the beloved children’s classic is a joy – an un-balletic stampede to the box office surely awaits it"

"I suspect there will be a very un-balletic stampede to the box-office to see this – the first major stage-adaptation of Noel Streatfeild’s much-loved children’s classic of 1936 – as the critical verdicts emerge, and word of mouth spreads."

"While this is manifestly a tale of young girls finding themselves and contending with the world – and a difficult world at that, parent-less, cash-strapped – its capacity to enchant transcends the hermetic particulars of its domestic and theatrical milieux."

"... Rudd’s fleet, beautiful production – dominated by an arching stack of fossil-lined alcoves – has a lightness of touch on all fronts."

"Departing Rufus Norris has been often criticised for being dour in his choices, but this is another welcome validation of his programming instincts; a family-friendly evening that asks the big questions – who we are, what we can do with our lives – honours our literary heritage, advances the theatrical form and offers feelgood pleasure."

"Ballet Shoes at the National Theatre is a perfect joy" (2024)

"An exuberant and skillful adaptation will please the novel’s generations of fans while simultaneously enchanting a whole new audience"

"Jingle those bells joyfully: here is a real Christmas cracker from the National Theatre, one whose pleasures will surely be enjoyed for myriad festive seasons to come. Noel Streatfeild’s evergreen 1936 children’s book has been exuberantly adapted by Kendall Feaver in a manner so skilful it will please the novel’s generations of fans while simultaneously enchanting a whole new audience. Feaver’s delicate mastery, in collaboration with director Katy Rudd, lies in the way she provides the work with constant modern inflections, while maintaining absolutely its sense of time (pre-war) and place (genteel yet financially straitened middle-class London)."

"A lively ensemble is sensibly peopled with performers who have real ballet skill, something the delightful Sequerra also possesses in abundance. She, Saif and Enriquez form the hugely appealing centre point in this rich tapestry of action, offering the convincing rough and tumble of sibling life shot through with bonds of unbreakable loyalty."

(2024)

"Kendall Feaver's stage adaptation maintains the spirit of the work without being enslaved to it. The story of a household of orphaned girls who fall into the care of an eccentric professor of paleontology and their different paths towards fulfilment, it is blazingly well executed and - like Cinderella's glass slipper - a perfect fit for the stage."

"Choreographers Ellen Kane and Jonathan Goddard's dance sequences take on extra significance here and are integrated seamlessly into director Katy Rudd's vivacious production."

"The nostalgia is mitigated by the propulsion towards self-determination for women. Intelligent and alluring family entertainment with an edge."

"Springs from page to stage with panache" (2024)

"There are perils to adapting a much-loved children’s novel – especially one never out of print since its publication in 1936... But adaptor Kendall Feaver and director Katy Rudd have done a magnificent job. They have altered the plot of the novel, making it both more and less full of incident, stripped away some period detail and added contemporary base notes. Yet they have absolutely remained true to the spirit of the book, and its hope-filled moral of making the best of yourself and determining your own future."

"Above all the staging, fluidly choreographed by Ellen Kane (with Jonathan Goddard), creates its own magic, making a story that is full of love for the self-realising powers of theatre and dance into a transformative experience in itself."

"It’s a Christmas show with heart, soul and a flurry of movement to sweep you away."

"This snappy family show is the National at its best" (2024)

"Kendall Feaver’s bold adaptation of Noel Streatfeild’s 1930s children’s novel at the Olivier, National Theatre, is ideal material for a holiday outing"

"Could this be the classiest Christmas show in town? Kendall Feaver’s bold adaptation of Noel Streatfeild’s 1930s children’s novel doesn’t come festooned with baubles and elves, yet the combination of adventure, romance and sheer good humour makes it ideal material for a holiday outing. Yes, boys may well have to be dragged along while making Molesworth-style noises about soppy gurls, but once they’re in their seats some of them will enjoy themselves too."

"It may not quite reach the heights of last year’s sublime musical version of The Witches, but what you get here is a beguiling play with music that exemplifies the very best of the National’s production values."

"Katy Rudd’s production draws exuberant performances from a multitasking cast led by Justin Salinger as both GUM and Madame Fidolia, the implacable Russian dance teacher who has to contend with Posy’s obsessive desire to become a ballerina."

"An elegant Christmas cracker of a show" (2024)

"Noel Streatfeild’s classic about three adopted sisters who go to stage school is spirited, spiky and spectacular"

"Under the direction of Katy Rudd, this is an exquisite Christmas cracker of a show, albeit an elegant one that never quite let its hair down, but still it is filled with spectacular theatricality and fabulous performances all round."

"Samuel Wyer’s costumes dazzle and Frankie Bradshaw’s set is no less than luminous with GUM’s ancient exhibits in glass cases spiralling upwards, across the house’s storeys, while Ash J Woodward’s video projections and Paule Constable’s lighting create the almost magical effect of movement: dinosaurs lurch and sea waves swish across the stage."

"There are quietly moving moments around the girls’ insecurity and growing pains that make it feel less like a children’s story, perhaps a little too sedate and emotionally complicated, and more a story for preteens."

"... it would be a mistake to see this story as an old-fashioned one: non-domestic, independent femininity lies at heart, still refreshingly bold today."

"A vivid stage version of Noel Streatfeild’s tale of self-discovery" (2024)

"Kendall Feaver’s dramatisation at the National Theatre galvanises the classic children’s novel into a modern work"

"Kendall Feaver’s dramatisation galvanises Streatfeild’s chronicle into a lively feminist tale of self-discovery and mutual support. Katy Rudd’s decisive direction keeps exposition to a minimum and handles the passage of time with wit and economy as our three heroines slog through daily class or toil away in the chorus."

"Frankie Bradshaw’s set — part wunderkammer, part Advent calendar — is an ingenious assemblage of doors, galleries, stairwells and cubbyholes stuffed with Jurassic bric-a-brac."

"At three hours the show needs trimming."

"Samuel Wyer’s tinfoil tutus — a sly parody of Oskar Schlemmer’s 1922 Triadic Ballet — are a triumph and Yanexi Enriquez’s Petrova seemed as thrilled as the audience by her all-too-brief flying sequence. Petrova, who dreams of engines and aeroplanes, finally gets her heart’s desire. Pauline (Grace Saif) goes to Hollywood, Posy goes to Paris and Petrova goes to Croydon aerodrome."

"The NT’s slick, soft-focus stage version of the classic kids’ novel is luxuriant but plodding" (2024)

"The National Theatre’s big family Christmas show is a sumptuous adaptation of Noel Streatfeild’s classic 1936 children’s novel Ballet Shoes. It’s slick, classy and meticulously directed by Katy Rudd. But ultimately it lacks dramatic punch."

"On a beautiful, fossil-filled set from Frankie Bradshaw, Rudd directs gracefully, pepping things up with various plays within the play"

"... there isn’t really a huge amount of drama there. Partially I think this is because the adaptation from rising star Australian playwright Kendall Feaver is a bit of a missed opportunity. She doesn’t interrogate the somewhat dated, British Empire-era original text, but rather blurs it into a soft focus that’s more PC, but not in a particularly pointed way."

"It’s a classy night at the theatre that purrs smoothly but rarely thrills, hung up on ideas of nurture versus nature that are less interesting to our society than Streatfeild’s."

"Big-hearted production that captures imaginations" (2024)

"Slick take on Noel Streatfeild’s beloved children’s story of following your dreams"

"... it provides a welcome dose of alternative Christmas cheer that pirouettes and pliés on to the Olivier stage in a slick, gorgeously mapped-out production by Katy Rudd."

"It’s a story that doubles up as a love letter to the stage, and Rudd’s production has terrific fun with this."

"If it could do with a little more challenge and excitement, it’s still a loveable, big-hearted production that captures imaginations and tickles the humour of audiences of all ages."